Detailed Game Review – SF 26, PHI 21
Posted: October 2nd, 2014 | Author: Tommy Lawlor | Filed under: Philadelphia Eagles | 74 Comments »Set aside schemes, smoothies, sports science and all the other bells and whistles of modern football. The game still comes down to blocking and tackling. The Niners blocked better. The Niners tackled better. The Niners won.
In my preview for PE.com I talked about how this game would be a physical test for the Eagles. SF might be down a few players, but that is still one tough, rugged team. Think of these 2 plays. Shady McCoy gets free for the first time all game and is headed for the end zone when Safety Antoine Bethea explodes through his legs and puts McCoy down just outside the 1-yard line. Frank Gore catches a pass in space he rumbles 30 yards before Safety Earl Wolff gets there. Wolff can’t bring him down (or anything close to it) and Gore scores an easy TD.
The Seahawks won the Super Bowl last year. Physical team. The Ravens before that. Physical team. Some team from New Jersey before that. Physical team. The Packers before that. Physical team. And so on.
Chip Kelly wants a big, strong, physical team. The Eagles are headed in that direction. They won more than a few physical showdowns on Sunday, but not enough. This team is still a work in progress.
COACHING
There is a lot to question from the way that Chip Kelly handled Sunday’s game. One of the hot topics was the Eagles accepting a penalty that moved SF back, but gave them another shot at converting a 3rd down, which they did. Bill Davis said in his PC that the coaches wanted a chance to possibly push SF out of FG range. That was going to be risky, but they felt the risk was worth it. I have no problem with this decision. It didn’t work out as hoped, but the Niners still had to settle for a FG so it didn’t cost the Eagles any extra points.
There was a play over the middle where Anquan Boldin made a questionable catch. No challenge from Kelly. I thought that was the smart move. Timeouts were going to be precious in that game. Don’t risk it for a play where it wasn’t clearly an incompletion.
Some people hated the playcalling at the end of the game. I had no problem with Chip throwing the ball on the final 2 plays. I can’t imagine the OL was going to move SF off the ball at the goal line. I was not a huge fan of the final call (rollout/flood play).
The overall offense was hard to judge. The execution was so poor that you couldn’t get a good feel for the gameplan. I thought there were too many deep balls, but I’m not sure if that was Foles choice or Kelly’s design.
Davis decided to blitz Colin Kaepernick and that worked for the most part. There were a couple of plays where I wonder if he should have been less aggressive, but the overall gameplan seemed pretty good.
OFFENSE
MISC
* 5 of 13 on 3rd downs.
* 0 for 1 in the RZ
* 4 turnovers. Ugh.
Players
QB
FOLES – Poor showing, but still almost pulled out the win. Went 21-43-195. Had 2 INTs. Sloppy game. Too many poor decisions and too many poor throws. Good moments were few and far between. Moved the chains on opening 3rd down by running for a yard up the middle. Threw downfield for Celek and then Ertz on that drive. Both were incomplete and a bit long. Celek was open. Ertz was well-covered by 57. Slid to his left in the mid-1st and hit Ertz for a 3rd down completion that moved the chains. Looked good and made me think that would get him going. Next throw was way off target. Went for Mac downfield. Pass was short and out of bounds. Had Maclin open for long TD in the early 2nd. Made bad throw. Wasn’t balanced when he threw it. Sad thing is that the middle of the field was wide open. If the ball is anywhere in there, Mac could go get it. Instead the ball went the other direction and Mac had no chance to even get a hand on it. Made a terrible decision on 2nd/2 in the late 3rd. Had no one open so he forced the ball downfield to Maclin. Got hit as he threw the pass and that led to an INT. Foles had room to run and could have easily moved the chains and gotten a new set of downs. Ugh.
Did come alive late in the 4th Qtr. Made some good throws and marched the Eagles down to the 1-yard line. Looked like a completely different player than we had seen the rest of the game. The Eagles didn’t score, but did get the ball back one final time. Nick was awful on that drive. It was a tough situation, but he gave the team no chance.
RB
SHADY – 10-17. That’d be fine if he was a shooting guard for the Sixers, but those aren’t good numbers for a RB. Had little to no room to run. Made things worse in this game by trying to go wide. There were some plays when he had 3 or 4 yard gains and tried to stretch them. Shady is desperate to break off a 25-yard run. You just can’t think like that.
Had one awful moment as a blocker. Antoine Bethea blitzed on 3rd down in the RZ. Shady needed to just block him for one second to give Nick time to throw. Didn’t happen. Foles was rushed and threw an off-target pass to Celek.
SPROLES – 2-2 as a receiver. 1-4 as a runner. I think Kelly should have mixed him in more as a runner. Sproles burst and N-S style could have helped out.
TE
CELEK – No catches. Had 2 passes come his way. Another inconsistent showing as a blocker. Not a good year for him.
ERTZ – 4-43 as a receiver, but not a great game. Fumbled ball to SF after short catch in the early 3rd. Really a crushing play. Set up the Niners in scoring position and really gave them momentum. Blocking was sloppy. There was one play where a defender just threw Ertz to the ground. Has to get bigger and stronger over time.
CASEY – No catches. Was involved in the final couple of plays and was even a target, but the LB had him covered pretty well.
WR
MACLIN – Targeted 15 times. Caught 4 passes. 3 of the catches came on the one good drive late in the game. I don’t think there is anything negative to say about Mac’s performance. Foles just wasn’t on target for most of the game. And Mac had to make some tough catches on that one drive. His highlight was a diving grab along the sideline that turned 3rd/14 into a 1st down.
MATTHEWS – Wasn’t on the same page with Foles in the late 1st, Jordan was over the middle and went to his right. Foles threw the ball to the left, where it fell incomplete. Caught 8-yd pass on 3rd/5 in the mid-2nd. Moved the chains. Caught the ball when it came his way. Finished 4-28 for the game.
COOPER – Best game of the so far, but still had devastating mistake. Led the team with 6 catches and 54 yards, but all anyone will remember is the drop. Got “open” in the end zone. Foles forced the ball to Coop and it somehow got through defenders and right to him. Coop just couldn’t hang on. Should have made that catch. Critical mistake. Solid game up to that point. Worked to get open in the early 2nd and caught a pass for 15 yds, but it was wiped out by holding call. Got called for OPI on the next play and that wiped out a 15-yd gain for Matthews. Ugh. Caught a pass late in the half. Got upfield and then had the ball knocked away. SF got it. Didn’t cost the team anything because it was the final play of the half, but you don’t like to see that anyway.
SMITH – Had one catch on the final drive, a WR screen. Got 11 yds on the play and moved the chains.
MAEHL – Didn’t see him on offense.
OL
PETERS – LT. Mostly a good game. Did get called for holding on the final drive. That penalty really killed any chance the Eagles had.
TOBIN – Started off pretty well. Looked comfortable and confident. First mistake came on pass play in the late 1st. Blocked Justin Smith, then let him go. Smith then hit Foles as he threw. Got away with terrible penalty late in the half. Eagles ran a screen to Ertz. Tobin wanted to let Smith upfield, but got pushed back too far. Then grabbed Smith and put him on the ground (flagrant hold) and Smith’s helmet came off. Looked like they could have called him for a facemask as well. Had okay initial block of Smith in the late 3rd on a pass play, but didn’t sustain at all. Smith got by him and hit Foles as he let a pass go. Ball got picked off. Got blown up on 4th Qtr play where he tried to reach block a DL. Guy shed Tobin and stuffed Shady for a loss. Overall I thought Tobin showed good potential. He used his hands well. Showed a good nasty streak. Just got beaten some late in the game. More good than bad and certainly encouraging in terms of his future. The mistakes can be worked on.
MOLK – C. Not a great game. Got driven back by NT in pass pro in early 2nd. That flushed Foles. Got holding penalty. Got beaten by the NT late in the game and that flushed Foles out. Had a good block of NT on McCoy’s run down to the 2-yd line late in the game. There were other plays where he wasn’t able to get any push or got moved back.
KELLY – RG. Didn’t stand out good or bad.
HERREMANS – RT. Disappointing game. Poor run block in the 1st half. Tried to get push vs OLB and Todd got stuffed. Got badly beaten by inside move in the early 4th. Forced Foles to throw the ball away. Got beaten off the edge on the next play. Had very good block of Bethea on WR screen late in the game. I thought Todd would be a solid RT, but he struggled. Got pushed back too much.
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DEFENSE
* SF was 8-19 on 3rd downs.
* Only 1 of 3 in the RZ. That’s progress.
* Eagles had 4 sacks. Really 6, but penalties took away 2.
PLAYERS
DL
COX – Good game. Impressive play in the 1st Qtr. Started inside with fake, then moved back wide and mirrored Kap as he moved to the outside. Cox shed his blocker and stayed right with Kap, eventually making him throw it away. Big men aren’t supposed to move like that. Drove the C back on 3rd/12. Got his hand up in Kap’s face and kept him from throwing. Kap got flushed and threw an incomplete pass. Blew up the LG and stuffed Gore on run play to his side. Did a great job of fighting off a pulling blocker and tackling Gore on 3rd Qtr run where he was trying to go outside. Didn’t make any impact plays, but absolutely impacted the game. Playing at a Pro Bowl level.
LOGAN – Solid game. Was in on 3 tackels. Used a great pass rush move in the mid-1st Qtr to get into the backfield and flush Kap. Fired into the backfield in mid-2nd and just missed TFL. Got penetration a few other times. Solid vs the run.
THORNTON – Best game of the year for Ced. 6 solo tackles and 2 TFLs. Also got some pressure on pass plays. Ate up the right side of the Niners OL. Great job on RZ pass play in the 1st Qtr. Drove back the RG and got held, which drew a flag. Blew up a 3rd Qtr run by driving the RG backward into Gore, shedding the block and tackling Gore. Got TFL in the 4th when he shed the RG and got into the backfield in a hurry. Seemed to be in the backfield on a regular basis.
CURRY – Good rush off the edge in the 1st Qtr. Used rip move & drove back the RT. Got a sack on a hustle play in the 1st. Lined up at LDE and rushed. Kap got flushed by Allen and Curry hustled in pursuit. Was closest to Kap when he went out of bounds. Had good block on Jenkins INT return for TD. Unblocked off the edge in the late 2nd, but couldn’t get the sack. RB got Curry at the last minute.
BAIR – Solid game. Backup DL played a decent amount. Bair didn’t make any plays, but did a good job of holding his ground and fighting to get off blocks.
B. ALLEN – Almost got his first NFL sack. Used quickness to get upfield, then used power to knock the C out of his way. Flushed Kap and chased him out of bounds. Curry was a step closer when Kap went out so he got the sack. Perfect 2-gap vs inside run in the RZ. Shed C and grabbed RB as he tried to go upfield. Minimal gain. Had another play where he shed a block and stuffed Gore for short gain.
OLB
COLE – Got 1/2 sack on first 3rd down of the game. Blitzed the A gap. Blocked initially, but got off that and came free to help Barwin take down Kaep. Made dumb mistake in early 1st Qtr when he tried to cut inside of LT and go for Gore. Let the RB get wide. Didn’t cost many yards, but Trent knows better. His job is to play the run outside-in. Had a very impressive play in the early 2nd. Lined up at the far hash and got by the LT on a pass play. Chased Kap all the way to the far sideline and forced him to get rid of the ball. Great effort. Good closing speed. Got a sack in the early 3rd to kill a drive, but that was wiped out by a penalty. Had another great pursuit play in the early 4th. Chased Kap from the right hash mark to the far sideline again. Hit him by the sideline and forced Kap to throw the ball away. Threw off a 4th Qtr run by stuffing a pulling OL. Even better on the next play. Violently shed the H-back and got to Gore in the backfield. The stat sheet shows 0.5 sacks and 1 solo tackle. Ask Kap about #58 and he’ll tell you that guy was a pain to deal with all game long. Great, great motor.
BARWIN – Active game. Was in on 7 tackles. Had a sack, but that was really a pair of 1/2 sacks. Used to spy on Kap on some plays and did an effective job. Solid in coverage. Good run defense, as always. Unblocked on first 3rd down of the game. Lined up in A gap and blitzed. Kaep turned away and Cole was there to help Barwin sack him and pin the Niners deep. Got off block in mid-2nd and tackled Gore on run to his side. Got TFL on Gore run in the late 3rd. Shared other sack wth Casey Matthews.
GRAHAM – Beat the LT in the late 1st and got a sack. Used penetration to blow up a run play to his side in the late 3rd. Led to TFL. Run defense still needs work. Too often Graham wants to attack, but he’s first got to set the edge and do his role.
SMITH – Saw time at ILB in some Nickel looks. Made one huge mistake. Kap scrambled to the left and Smith focused on that. Didn’t see Frank Gore leak out to the backside. Gore was then wide, wide open for the catch. Turned that into a 55-yard TD. Typical rookie type of mistake, but very costly.
ILB
KENDRICKS – DNP
RYANS – Whiffed on 3rd down tackle attempt of Boldin on crossing route in the 1st. I think that was his only mistake for the game. Active game. Just all over the place. Credited with 7 solo tackles. Good vs inside runs. Very good in coverage. Hugged up tight against receivers when Kap would go to scramble. The Eagles coaches prefer the term “plaster”. Ryans always seemed to be in the right spot, whether as a tackler or cover guy. Didn’t have any special plays, but did all the little things well. Good game. 58 and 59 for the Eagles were all over the field.
MATTHEWS – I have to say this carefully or I’ll get ripped…Casey actually had some good moments. Got off to a crappy start, but then came alive as the game went on. Overran 1st Qtr run and left lane up the middle for Gore to get 5 yds. Overran play in the early 2nd. Let RB cut back. Made solid hit/tackle of Gore in the 2nd on a pass play over the middle. Blitzed up the middle in the early 3rd. Got by Gore and shared sack with Barwin. Good effort on that play. Did a good job in the early 3rd of mirroring Gore on a run and was there for the tackle, but couldn’t bring him down. Tackled Kap on QB sneak, but Kap was already beyond the line. That was a good play. Not easy to get to Kap in traffic and stop him. Blitzed the A-gap in the mid-3rd and pressured Kap into throwing the ball away in the RZ. I don’t think Casey will be putting on the gold jacket anytime soon, but it was encouraging to see him have some success.
ACHO – Solid showing. 4 solo tackles, including a TFL. Lost a 1st Qtr sack when Eagles accepted a holding penalty. Helped blow up 2nd Qtr run. Stepped up and took on the FB. Went low and knocked him back. That tripped up a pulling OL and disrupted the run. Made good stuff of 4th Qtr run. Gore got boxed in and Acho put him down. Did a good job of filling on run play that came right at him in the 4th. I’m encouraged by the fact he’s being more physical. Too often this summer Acho wanted to run around blockers. Looks like a solid run defender.
S
N. ALLEN – Up and down game. Got somewhat run over by Boldin in the mid-1st. Too passive as he let Boldin come at him after catching short pass on 3rd down. Nate needed to attack and get him down short of the sticks. Instead, he waited and Boldin knocked him back and got the 1st down. Ugh. Made good tackle of Crabtree after catch on drag route. Only gave up 3 yds. Sloppy missed tackle of TE after short catch in the early 4th. Gave up 7 extra yards and moved them closer in FG range. Did a good job in coverage, especially man coverage. Was in on 4 total tackles. Run defense needed to be better. Beyond tackles, there were times when Nate needed to aggressively take on blockers and affect the play, but he was blocked too easily.
JENKINS – Good game. Had 6 solo tackles and a pick-6. Impressive INT in the early 2nd. Dropped off his guy and got in the passing lane. Kap threw the ball right to him. Jenkins then weaved through traffic and took it all the way back for a TD. Boykin got hurt and Jenkins played some in the slot. Beaten by Boldin in the mid-2nd when Anquan made an amazing catch. Solid in man coverage. Did a good job in run support.
WOLFF – Helped to break up a 1st Qtr pass when he hit WR from behind as the ball got there. Had one huge mistake. Failed to tackle Gore on the broken play that went for a 55-yd TD. Went up high on Gore and that’s not going to work.
CB
FLETCHER – Good game. Was in on 6 tackles and broke up 2 passes. Solid job in run support. Looked like he covered well for the most part.
WILLIAMS – Rough game. Accidentally ripped the helmet off Crabtree late in the half. Drew flag, but it was taken back after the refs talked and figured out there was no facemask violation. Had a critical holding call in the early 3rd that extended a drive that resulted in a TD. Gave up that TD pass, but it was a great catch by the receiver so I don’t blame Williams for that. He had pretty good coverage. Horrible effort on 3rd Qtr run that came to his side. Had blocker coming at him and failed to take the guy on. Gore got an additional 20 or so yards because of that. Gave up 25-yd completion to Crabtree in the 4th, but actually had good coverage. Did have 7 tackles.
BOYKIN – Got hurt and missed part of the game. Came back after halftime. Finished with 1 tackle. Somewhat quiet game.
CARROLL – Blitzed up the middle in the early 2nd and got good pressure on Kap. That forced Kap to get rid of the ball quickly and Jenkins picked it off. Blitzed on other plays and had some success. Becoming key part of the Dime package.
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ST’s
JONES – Averaged 48.5 yards per punt.
PARKEY – No FGs. 2 touchbacks.
KOR – Chris Polk averaged 21.7 yds per KOR on 3 returns.
PR – Sproles ran punt back 82 yards for a TD. Got good blocking. Used good burst to get up the field. Also had to overcome a facemask on that play. Shut down after that 2 other PRs netted 4 yds.
– MISC –
* Great job on blocked punt for TD. Trey Burton lined up over the RT. He then took a hard inside slant at the snap and attacked the RG, who was already blocking Bryan Braman. Burton drove the guy back, extended for the ball and got the block. Brad Smith was there for the recovery.
* Acho made a diving tackle on the opening punt of the game.
* Burton made one big mistake while trying to field a punt.
* Jenkins had a terrific block on Sproles TD. Put his defender on the ground. Brad Smith also had a good block. Polk served as his escort for the final part of the run.
* Bair ran over the LT and just missed blocking a FG late in the half. Great effort.
“MATTHEWS – I have to say this carefully or I’ll get ripped…Casey actually had some good moments.”
Classic.
Honestly, Tommy, I said it last year. I said it this year. I’ll say it again now. I think we’d all just be happier if you never mentioned this boy’s name again.
And please no more mentioning of ‘up and down’ Nate Allen…
And we’ll give it two more games, then add Riley Cooper to this list.
the guy only had 800yds last year. I thought he’d be the next jordy nelson. i was wrong.
Funny that Riley is actually ahead of where he was at this point last year
Sure, but Vick never threw the guy the ball. He didn’t start get catches until Foles was in. I wouldn’t call that stat a victory for him just yet.
Definitely not a victory… He simple hasn’t been good enough yet… That’s not in dispute…
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I’m not trying to tell you that coop is some stud WR that just needs some time to get it together…but I can assure you Cooper is better than what he has provided these first 4 weeks..
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I don’t see him playing at this current level all year… He isn’t a game changer, but he is better than what he has been thus far.. We certainly can’t expect coop to carry us! but he will bring more to the table than what we have seen up to this point….
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that’s a pretty low bar. Kelly liked him because of his sneaky speed and ability to get downfield separation and track balls. All that getting open doesn’t matter if you can’t catch.
Crazy that everyone who was on offense last year is looking like ass. Everyone who didn’t play last year looks great.
Cooper is better than he has shown so far..we all know he has limitations,but if we are being honest, we know he is ATleast better than he has shown so far this year..
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Crazy how WR can have such different years from one to the next… I thought I was going to be really weak at WR on my fantasy team…as in I was really down on my WRs after the draft… Now it looks like I have one of the best WRs groups in the league:
1) Maclin… Most targeted WR in the NFL
2) Emmanuel Sanders..putting up better stats than all of Peyton’s weapons..
3) Kelvin Benjamin.. Cam throw him a million passes per game lol
4) Steve Smith, oldest player in NFL history to get 400 yards in his first 4 games…he has already become Flacco’s fav WR
I think Cooper is exactly who I thought he was. An overpaid number 2 wr. No better, no worse. Next year(or when replaced by Mathews) he’ll be a solid #3 and not counted on as much. Then he’ll just be an overpaid #3 wr doing what’s asked of him.
Good players make that catch in the end zone.
He’ll start to feel like Acho – a yoyo.
yeah, I don’t get this crap about “had some good moments”. Both have been on this team for awhile now but somehow we’re to celebrate the “good moments”.
Bethea was a beast in this game. He looked like Dawkins in his prime.
Communication between Tobin and Peters was a problem. Hopefully they straighten that out.
Does Foles have freedom to audible? There were several plays that had no chance from before the snap. So either Foles isn’t allowed to change the play call or he is not recognizing the D alignment. This isn’t McNabb Reid era, they always have at least 15 seconds on the play clock to change the call.
he does bethea read his hand signals.
Yup.
What’s funny is that fucker fooled me. I thought he was playing possum in that, he was supposed to be really banged up last week, I thought he was going to be injured and he was forcing himself to play to keep his insane street of games played in tact…so I figured we would be able to pick on him being selfish to keep his streak intact.. Boy was I wrong, dude was all over the field, balling out!
Just a comment about the unaccepted penalty by Kelly that’s mentioned in the first part of the coaching analysis: while it didn’t cost us any more points in the end, it cost us a few minutes of game time that we desperately needed in the end. No way of seeing that at the time I guess.
After Billy Davis explained that decision, I am actually pleased to see them think that way… I have no problem with them being aggressive. Instead of conceding 3 points and just trying to make it a harder kick, we tried to attack them and get them out of field goal range.. Defense was playing well, I have no problem with aggressive play calling like that…. In that situation most coaches will concede 3 points and focus on not giving up a TD… I like that we attacked and weren’t going to play scared and concede 3 points..
Too bad Billy D forgot Kaep can run. I agree i’ll take that call every time.
I still didn’t like it, mainly due to the time issue. Earlier in the game, yeah I’d take the yardage, but in that situation I wanted their offense off the field two minutes earlier. (Of course had Cooper made that catch, or even better if the Eagles punched it in on 3rd or 4th down, it would have been a good move to drain a couple minutes off.) I just prefer extending the game if behind, to get more realistic chances.
More impressive than the number of INTs Jenkins is collecting is the fact they come in different ways… Against the skins, he was playing centerfield, read the QBs eyes and made a play on the ball… The next one came when he was playing man coverage, he passed off his man to a team mate, and made the play on the other WR (similar to the SB play when Kam chancellor peeled off his guy to bury Welker)…
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As for the INT against the Niners, props to Nolan Carrol who blitzed the A gap, got pressure on kAp forcing him to rush the throw before he saw Jenkins in position for the pick 6…
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Brandon Graham, not setting the edge was a major detriment to what otherwise was a stout run defense… We handled the unbalanced lines and power run game up the gut well, but not setting the edge caused us to give up too many rushing yards on the outside….
Shady needs to be much more patient… Like a fighter, when you are trying to swing for a knockout, it never comes… When you stick to your fundamentals and don’t look for the knockout, that’s when you land one flush and remove your opponent from his consciousness…
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Shady is pressing way too much. Early in the game he is already looking for the cutbacks.. He isn’t going to break a big one if he keeps pressing. What he has to do, is be patient, run the designed play in the first half even if you only get 2,3,4’yards..lull the defense to sleep… After a first half of taking the holes designed for him to take he can study the defense, see how they are playing him in different sets.. Spend the first half studying how the backside defenders are playing him…basically use the first half to set up the defense..and after a half of not cutting it back, come second half the defense will be a little more worn down, they won’t be so focused on Shadys cutback lanes… He needs to run Discapline in the he first half, setting up the defense, to catch them with his cutbacks and gash them for big plays in the second half…
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He can’t be pressing for the Homerun In the first quarter of games.. Defenses aren’t stupid.. When you play shady, you spend a week talking about his cutback ability..defense are keying in on his cutbacks early in the game, so stop cutting back, take what the play is designed to give you, lull the defense to sleep and unleash the cutbacks and Homerun swings in the second half..
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He is pressing way too early in games…
he was so spoiled last year. If you look at the WAS game or the DET game he’s got monstrous holes to run through and then of course it’s over once he’s in the second level. He lost weight so he can be better once he’s in that second level, but shady’s never going to push a pile. I think they need to put in polk a little bit see if he can move someone.
We were spoiled..Knew we had an awesome line, but I don’t think we realized how awesome it was and how big of a role it played in the fantastic offense we enjoyed all last year, both running the ball and thru the air..
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This year, Nick FOles is getting killed yet he only been sacked 4 times.. That means the kid drastically improved what we all though he needed to improve on which is getting rid of the ball and not taking bad sacks.. He has improved drastically for him to have only been sacked 6 times in 4 games considering the amount of pressure he is facing and hits he has taken.. If he got rid of the ball like this last year the OL would have looked even more amazing…
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we didn’t realize how much of the credit needed to go to the OL,and it was foolish of us… We had the best OL in the history of the Eagles, it’s not some crazy coincidence that we set offensive franchise records…
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Not only did we lose two of 5 starters to injury needing to replace two first string players with two second string inexperienced young players…but the two first stringers we lost were the best fucking guard and center in the NFL..foolish of us to think losing them wouldn’t make a HUGE difference with the efficiency of our offense..
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Watch how fucked up the Falcons offense looks this week after losing it’s center Sunday..and they didn’t lose the best damn center in the game….it’s extremely foolish of us to expect our offense to operate at last years level without Lane, kelce, Mathis And Barbre…. Either we were dumb for having unrealistic expectations and not undstanding how serious the loss of the he best Lineman in the NFL. Was going to be, or we gave too much credit to Chip as some god that could overcome anything instantky and. Not skip a beat, continuing to perform like the best offense in the history of the franchise..
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All things considered, we have to be fucking morons to be complaining about 3-1 and acting like the team is under performing… Don’t know many teams that can lose ELITE. NFL players and still find a way to be 3-1…
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Now hopefully the young replacements Molk,and Tobin improve every week with more game time and practice reps with the starters..and hopefully FOles left shoulder is getting better, if so our offense will be better than what we have seen up until this point, but it’s probably foolish to expect it to operate at last years level until Kelce and Mathis get back..
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Fortunately we get them early November..all things go right we get healthy, they have time to knock the rust off and we get hot in December, peak going into the playoffs…
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Any reporter talking to the team negativity about being 3-1, all things considered should get slapped in the head
That’s a lot of writing but think I agree.
Felt bad for Marcus smith on that Frank Gore TD…. That was the epitome of rookie mistake….when QB starts scrambling our defenders are taught to “plaster” opponent… Which basically means, abandon your zone and play man to man on the closest opponent you can find and stick with him for the remainder of the play… Marcus Saw the TE before he saw Frank gore, so he did a good job of plastering the TE and sticking with him closely up field, but we had two defenders plastering the TE and Frank Gore was running free…
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An example of the perks of having Mobil QB, play breaks down, QB takes off, and create chaos with a scramble drill… I felt bad because Marcus did exactly what he was supposed to do, abandon his zone and look for an opponent to “plaster”….he just went with the TE instead of Frank gore who he just didn’t see……..
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I understand Marcus covering the wrong guy in a scramble drill! I was much more pissed at our “safety” missing the TD saving tackle..had Wolff converted that tackle, we could have held them to 3…
…the definition of safety is chasing opponents down and don’t let them get in the ENDZONE as the last line of defense… Wolff exhibited excellent athleticism covering half the field to catch up to Gore, but you can tell that he was confused about what he wanted to do.. He was thinking about going for the strip, making the tackle, and pushing him out of bounds at the same time, and ended up doing Neither…
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That’s a mental mistake…physically, he could have made a spectacular TD saving play covering so much field to get to gore.. I wrote about the mental side keeping Wolff back last week, sucks to see the mental side of things hold him back when he has the physical gifts to be as good as he wants to be….
This ismt a rookie, it’s not a newly signed eagle who is learning this scheme… This is year two for Wolff in this scheme… If things don’t slow down for him and he doesn’t put it all together come November/December, it won’t be a good sign of what type a safety he will grow into..
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Shame to see the mental game hold back a player who has the physical gifts to be a spectacular safety
Marcus was staring at Kaep the whole time. He wasn’t covering anyone. But agree that’s how MV made so many plays.
No, he ran and followed the TE up field instead of following Gore to the right
Shame the team didn’t value stockpiling ILB talent enough to avoid putting Marcus in that position.
long and Goode are injured. Theres the stockpile
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Kendrick is a quality starter..Naje is a quality backup…
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How much depth do you realistically expect?
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The real problem is that the Linebackers that are healthy are all best suited for Meco’s thumper role, not Kendricks LB spot…
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So you are seeing backup Thumper ILBs, try to fill the shoes of our athletic LBers that can run and cover ground..
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You can’t have 4’quality backups for Kendrick… You have a quality back up, lose your first and second string, and not to many teams have an awesome 3rd string
I just want Marcus getting 16 sack seasons at OLB Casey Matthews not on the team.
You think I would be opposed to either? Lol
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Unfortunately we are fucked cuz we lost first and second string players at the same position..
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Pick any position on the team and if the first string and second string player at that position gets injured, I bet the 3rd string won’t look as good..
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Funny how as soon as Knott suspension was coming to an end, Casey goes out and gets his only career sack(I assume it’s his only sack lol)
This is a tough week for me for so many different reasons..
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Initially I had us starting 4-0 with our 1st loss coming to the crappy Rams. Figured after big wins against Colts, Skins and Niners we would be feeling ourselves and have a letdown loss against crappy Rams..basically I viewed the Rams as last years Minnesota game…unfortunately we have Cb who are jeckyl n Hide… They can play come December/January crunch time, but a guy like Cary also plays down to the level of bad teams competitions and has big letdowns when we face teams like the jags! Vikings and I figured he would have a letdown against the rams… But losing to the Niners changes the dynamics of this matchup…players will be pissed after a loss, I can no longer expect a letdown game out of the eagles..
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I do know it’s never as bad as it look or as good as it looks.. Even if Lane wasn’t back, everyone would assume our line would be doomed again this week and them they would go out and show nice improvement from last week… Getting Lane back should solidify the right side and I’m expecting this to be one of those impressive offensive outings..
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Lane and Herremans will get shady going..I also expect Chip to put Jason peters on their side and run unbalanced lines.. Chip self scouts after each 4 game stretch,.last week his game plan left much to be desired, but you can’t really put that all on Chip because he had to shelve a lot of plays he would have liked to run because of our backup OL….I’m really expecting one of chips offensive masterpieces this week in terms of the game plan…
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I also know that the rare times that FOles has had bad games, and instead of supporting him, the fanbase shits all over the kid and the media starts talking stupid..FOles has always made them look foolish when he explodes in the next game…hopefully this trend comtinues..and what I initally thought would be an eagles loss, I think this will be the first big comfortable win…
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I’ve read the Rams DL is the most athletic we will face. So you worried?
Yes and no…
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The mighty Robert Quinn is one of my favorite players in football. It’s glorious to know that Jason peters will be charged with keeping him off FOles… the other side with Lane and Herremans should get the run game going with Chris Long out with an Injury…Herremans next to Molk makes me feel better about dealing with Brockers. I think having to block Aaron Donald in the beginning of October instead of the beginning of December is a big break!…
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We also been playing a lot of 3-4 defenses which are better suited to play the run and confuse our inexperienced OL with who they send as a pass rusher and who drops into coverage… Should be much easier to face this 4-3 defense..and I assume they will need their safeties to defend the run, so their should be some opportunities down field…
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It does worry me that I know nothing about the QB that we are facing other than he is a Mobil athlete who is a fiery guy.,.. If we can play with a lead, then you will see our defense at it’s best like it was last week in terms of getting after KAp.. If we can get a lead early, we will hurt this team bad!…. If offense struggle, and this is a close game all day, and they don’t have to abandon the run, then it becomes a much more difficult game…
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I expect OL to be much better than last week..
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Chip self scouted these past 4 games and I expect this week to be one of his offensive masterpieces were he should puts together a brilliant plan of attack…
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The ONLY thing that worries me is the level of pain FOles has to play with… He has a nasty bruise on his left shoulder going halfway down his arm…..if it doesn’t feel better than the Niners game then I am concerned…. If come Sunday, the pain is significantly more manageable than last Sunday, this will be our first comfortable win…
hope so. Any backup QB terrifies me.
Clearly, whenever we can play with a lead that could change a lot of things.
He has been named starter the rest of the year… Feel any better? 😉
Amazing to see so many “good games” in a loss, but it feels pretty accurate. I thought our front 7 looked dominant at times, the defense on the whole played really well I thought they were just on the field so damn much.
Darren Sproles and Malcom Jenkins are maybe the best offseason acquisitions since T.O. in ’04. I can’t believe the Saints let those guys go.
Barwin and Meco were also really strong offseason acquisitions..
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Bennie Logan looks like a friggin draft steal.. 3rd round pick, beginning of year two he is already starting to look like one of the best NTs in the NFL
If you told me before the season we would be 3-1 through four games and was missing our center (Kelce), left guard (Mathis), right tackle (Johnson), back up tackle (Barbre), back up guard (Tobin – first two games?) I would have been ecstatic. Everything is so connected with football. Your O-line has issues, you can’t run the ball. When you can’t run the ball, it’s harder to pass (especially when your third and long all the time). When you offense isn’t clicking…defense has more pressure and more drives to stop.
I am excited about getting our guys healthy and seeing what this offense can do down the stretch. Oh yeah, and I think folks are completely underestimating what having Boykin limited and Kendricks out has meant. They are by far the most athletic pieces of our team and it shows when they are not on the field. They also seem to be the most likely defenders to create turnovers, and short fields for the offense.
Well said…,to be 3-1 and having not even played close to our best ball yet is very exciting…NFL network is at eagles practice today and they are laughing at how are media is covering the team as if we were 1-3 instead of 3-1..
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Because of the modern day training camp restrictions and bogus pre season where starters barely even play, the months of September in the NFL is an extension of the preseason and now is when we start to see teams take shape and show their true colors..
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Take tonight for example.. 2-2 packers vs. 2-2 Vikings.. Identical records, but I think as this season gets under way we will see a drastic difference between the level these two teams will be operating at.. The packers will be a failure if they go 8-8, where as 8-8 would be a big moral victory for the Vikings…. A lot of September is about who is the most ready to play and less about who the best team is..
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Of course we have to adjust our Immediate expectations when you suffer such crucial injuries….l especially at the Offensive line,,
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Heck, just look at the Patriots. same QB, same running back as last year, same WRs, same Tight ends… The offensive line isn’t anywhere near as good as last year so you are seeing a hall of fame QB and skill position players who can’t play up to the level they played last year…….
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The premier running back in the NFL shady McCoy doesn’t look anything like last years player, mostly because of the offensive line,,
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When you lose the best Guard in the NFL and replace him with a young player who has never started an NFL game, you are going to have to adjust your expectations… The only gets compounded when you also lose the best center in the NFL and replace him with an undersized rookie center who was coaching high school football last year. It’s not rocket science… It’s going to effect us… The hope is that they can improve a little with each week of experience and practice that they gain, and we can overcome these loses, stay a float til we get our players back…
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It’s one thing to lose a starting guard or a starting center and replace him with a young inexperienced player… It’s another thing when it’s the best guard and best center in the NFL that you just lost… It’s not logical to not expect that to effect the offense..
In spite of my level of livid at losing to the hated duo of Kaep / Harbaugh, I’m happy with 3-1. We have the best tackle combo in the NFL back in business on the O-line, so lets take care of business vs. two substandard teams coming to our building over the next two weeks and get to this bye 3-1.
Any idea why Jenkins backs up Boykin in Nickel slot instead of Nolan?
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Wouldn’t we rather keep Jenkins at safety and play Nolan in the slot when we go to nickel? I understand playing Jenkins in the slot when we go to Dime, with Nolan as the dime corner and Wolff and Nate with the safeties,. But I can’t see the reasoning behind making Jenkins the backup nIckel CB instead of Nolan?
Slot = middle of the field a lot. Safety = middle of the field a lot.
Carroll might really be better suited to playing outside and/or seeing the field from that perspective.
Nolan is our dime CB, which is just the second slot CB… If he can play the slot in Dime, why wouldn’t he backup Boykin in Nickel so we can leave Jenkins at safety.
Tommy interested in your analysis of Foles at the bottom of this 538 thread. He is quite the outlier as a “gunslinger QB:” http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/skeptical-football-dynasties-perfect-kickers-and-a-weird-nfl-rule/
yes i liked this line for us to think about:
Gunslinging is how good QBs in bad spots still manage to win games
Tommy. U. Da. Man.
Rodgers is about to put 50 on GB. They tried to improve the quality of these thursday games by making them divisional but it’s not going to work.
What filthy turncoat. Why would he put 50 on his own team?
All jokes about your typing accident aside, I had Green Bay in suicide this week. I LOVE a laugh of a game to help me advance for another week.
I get that we run a specific offense, and I love it.. I wouldn’t change it for the world…but I can’t help to feel like we kind of blowing the element of surprise.
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When teams practice to face the Eagles, they are only preparing for Shotgun attack…
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If we come out on an important 3rd and 5….. In a non shotgun set..any other traditional formation that we worked on all week, defense wouldn’t have even thought about what to do if we were to line up in something other than shotgun..and if we could lineup in a non shotgun look speeding up the tempo so they have to lineup to defense our non shotgun formation quickly..defenders wouldn’t know what the hell to do…
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I don’t expect to change our shotgun offense, nor would I want to.. But since we are known for our exclusive shotgun attack, why not have the element surprise in our back pocket and Incorporate two or three different plays lining up in some set that we know they haven’t practiced for…
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CK made some comments in his press conference about only having a limited number of plays. How much can all these extra guys learn in one week? You’re just trying to get the lineman on the same page and to learn a couple of plays for that week — half of them have very little experience. So i think he was pretty limited in what he could call.
Well that speaks more to how basic our attack was on Sunday…
Chip’s actual quote kinda clears up your question a bit though:
“You self-scout yourself in terms of what you’re doing from a formation standpoint. But there are also sometimes when you are a little bit more limited in your game plan just because of who you have available to run what you want to run. To say, ‘Hey, this would be great to run this because they won’t think it’s coming,’ well if your guy doesn’t think it’s coming either it’s going to be real difficult for you. You’ve got to know what you’ve got in the lineup and obviously you had some younger guys that were playing so we weren’t probably as wide open, as expansive as we could have been if we had guys out there with a little more experience.”
http://www.phillymag.com/birds247/2014/10/02/inside-voices-6/#2abehidy0WAUIZvh.99
German Eagle– saw this, and thought of you. Might be worth a visit to one of these establishments during game day?
http://www.phillymag.com/foobooz/2014/10/02/2014-50-best-bars-philadelphia/
Thank you, sir.
Was it Ryans who knocked Vernon Davis out the game?
I was listening to Merrill and Mike during the game and Howard Eskin stated that Vernon Davis may have possibly a broken vertebrae [paraphrasing] and I’ve been trying to follow up on Davis’s status and cannot find anything but him not being at practices for the 9ers.
doesn’t sound as serious as a broken back, I heard back spams.
To cook with back bacon? ;~)
Yes. Ryans wasted him on a rare free shot to that part of a pass catcher.
“SHADY – 10-17. That’d be fine if he was a shooting guard for the Sixers, but those aren’t good numbers for a RB”
An instant classic line there, Tommy. Brutal, but honest.
Tommy, what is the degree of difficulty on that Maclin throw early in the second? He is throwing out of the shadow of his own goal post on a 3rd and 15. He sees a blitzing safety off the edge and he has a guy coming free over the RG. He saw Kaep take a sack in this very spot earlier in the game which lead to a ST TD.
He is throwing this ball 5 yards before Maclin is even making his cut. Looks like Mac is running a corner route but Nick is expecting him to not angle so deep. Mac doesn’t even spot the ball until he is 30 yards deep into a 40 yard throw.
Looks more like a miscommunication or a get rid of it before the blitz gets there than a bad pass.
I agree with you in that the throw has some very difficult conditions under which he had to throw it and the guy who needed to run under that throw is slower than the guy Foles would have thrown that ball two last year. After a few more weeks of film (and practice if WRs can practice more than they did during pre-season) Foles should have a few of those deep ball issues sorted out.
Also with Johnson back the Eagles can use any extra blocking help to assist with the middle because Peters / Lane will be giving Foles clean edges.
All true. Does he throw it even further if that was the other guy? Did he compensate for the speed with Mac? If he had thrown it to the center of the field or a straight pass down the left hash as Tommy had suggested, it would be even further down the field.
I can’t say it was a good pass but a goog attempt and a smart play
why throw that deep ball in the first place? look at all the underneath stuff available. two open receivers at the bottom of the screen. he’s throwing the deep ball terribly why keep chucking it, especially when your o-line play is awful.
The shot is as he is launching. A second before that he sees the blitz coming off the edge. The only other receiver that is at or beyond the stick is on the other side of the field. 3rd and 10. No one else is making the first down. He has been gettig killed by everyone about taking to long to throw. So here we are asking to take more time to get your feet under you or slide left . All of this form your own 5 yard line with a free blitzer and the LT getting beat.
In the interest of consistency, arrogance, and fandom I declare the following:
Eagles win the next two to get to the by at 5-1. They come out of the bye with a loss to Arizona followed by our yearly “how the F did you lose that game” loss to Houston because Alfred Blue runs for like 200 and 3 TDs and we lose two fumbles or somethings stupid like that.
We then hit the final 8 games at 5-3, but rip off a run of 6-2 in the final 8 with the only losses coming to Seattle and Green Bay. That run includes a murder / death / kill of the Panthers at the start and a pick-6 a-thon vs. Eli in the final game. Our 11-5 record earns us the 3 seed. After beating the Lions here on wild card weekend, we get a rematch in Green Bay for the division round.
Oh, you can’t stop right when you get to the good part! How does it end? How does it end?
I won’t nit pick everything — just two points. Not challenging a play, for an incomplete pass, is inexcusable. Time outs? With this team? Give me a break. Second — you don’t mind the 2 passes to not score because of how the 9’ers were handling the run game. Let me ask — how did the Eagles get so close to the goal line on the play before? I’m pretty sure it was a very nice run play. I don’t care what happens the previous 3 and 7/8 quarters — the player maker was/is/always will be Shady. Let him run it on 3rd down because of momentum from the play before. Do the hurry up offense and snap the ball….
Because a quick draw from the 7 on second and goal is a totally different play design than, our best vs your best with the game on the line from 4 feet out.
well — no shit. So our “best” is a throw from Foles or a role out from Foles? As you said, our best vs. their best resulted in 0 points. I’m not saying it has to be a goal line plunge from Shady. I’d imagine there is more than 1 play in the playbook for Shady.
To me, it’s more of a feel. You just got momentum from a run. A quick set up(we are a fast paced offense) and quick snap kind of eliminates their setting up “their” best being ready….
If Shady blocks Bethea it’s all irrelevant. The third down play was well drawn up.
I’ll agree to agree :).