Game Review – PS #2 – BUF at PHI – Offense
Posted: August 23rd, 2017 | Author: Tommy Lawlor | Filed under: Philadelphia Eagles | 125 Comments »The Eagles did not have a good offensive showing against the Bills. Poor blocking was an issue. Horrible QB play was an issue. Dumb penalties were an issue. Turnovers were an issue. Lots of blame to go around. There wasn’t a 3rd down conversion until the 4th quarter if that gives you any idea how much they struggled.
The starting offense came out flat and had a couple of wasted drives. They got going on the third drive and then went no-huddle. That helped get them in a rhythm and the offense looked good for a few plays. That all changed when Matt McGloin hit the field on the next drive. He was so bad it was hard to evaluate some of the players around him. He played like a nervous rookie, not someone who has started games and been around the league for years.
There will be a lot of talk about the struggles of the run game. Let’s give the Bills some credit for playing good defense, but the blocking by TEs and OL in this game left a lot to be desired. It was hard to judge the RBs because penetration blew up so many plays.
QB
Carson Wentz – Pretty good game. 6-9-56. First pass of the game just sailed over the head of Jeffery. No reason a short throw like that should have been so off target. Hit Ertz over the middle on the next play for 11 yds. Bad throw on 3rd/GL. Jeffery wasn’t really open, but the ball wasn’t anywhere near him. Might have been just throwing the ball away, but he tried to put touch on it so was an odd throw. Wentz came alive on the 3rd drive. Hit Jeffery with a quick throw to the right side. Then hit Agholor with a quick throw to the left for a 1st down. Offense went no huddle. Hit Jeffery on play-action for a gain of 14. Had to move in the pocket on the next play. Found Blount over the middle for a short pass that turned into a gain of 17. Had ball tipped by blitzer on next throw, but fell incomplete. Used hard count to get BUF to jump on 3rd/2. Gift 1st down. Had to scramble on next play. Heavy blitz forced him to run for short gain. Was under heavy pressure on the next play. Stood tall in the pocket and hit Blount with short pass, but then Blount fumbled.
Was hoping to see the offense look more crisp with Wentz at the helm. The first two drives weren’t good, but they did get it going on the final drive. The key is to build off that in the next game and avoid the slow start.
Matt McGloin – Awful. Just awful. Worst moment might have been on first drive. Tried to run a screen. BUF was all over it. McGloin still threw the ball. Clement caught it, took a big hit and lost yards. Just throw the damn ball away. Ugh. Made a handful of good throws, but they were completely negated by the awfulness of his bad moments. 12-20-131. Threw INT on horrible lob pass downfield to Hollins. There was double coverage and the throw was easily picked off. Not sure which was worse…the decision or the throw.
Dane Evans – Got better in his second game, but still erratic. 9-12-92. Showed a strong arm once again. Doesn’t consistently throw spirals. Accuracy was an issue on throws to his right. Highlight play was when he scrambled left and dove for the 1st down. Great effort, but came up short. Highlight throw was 3rd/19 pass to Ward for gain of 29 and 1st down. Put the ball on Wards back side and gave him a chance to make a play. Aggressive, but smart. A more gifted, more polished version of GJ Kinne, but still a major project.
RB
LeGarrette Blount – Up and down. Only 5 for 8 on the ground, but had no room. A couple of those runs were impressive. Hard, physical runner. Doesn’t go down on first contact. Highlight play was catching short pass over the middle, setting up his blockers and then taking off for gain of 17. Impressive play. Lowlight came a few snaps later when he caught another short pass, but then fumbled.
Corey Clement – Good game. 8-34 on the ground and had no room most of the time. Broke off 24-yd run in the early 2nd. Went backside on the play and used speed to get wide and then down the field. Put a good move on DB to get additional yards at the end of the run. At his best when he can keep his shoulders square to the LOS. Nice burst. Runs hard. Good pass-pro block on next snap. Love that effort and willingness to do the dirty work. Can’t always get the ball, but must be able to contribute. Solid in pass pro on several plays. Dropped pass in mid-2nd. Not a good throw (shocking, right?), but still needed to make the grab to impress the coaches. Ran for TD late in the half. Earned it by running hard and forcing his way in at the goal line.
Donnel Pumphrey – 2-20 as receiver. Caught pass in the late 3rd and made first defender miss. Good hands. Picked up rusher on pass play in mid-3rd. DE got by Hart and Pump was there to take him on and slow him down. Very good pass block in early 4th. Blocked blitzing OLB and rode him wide of the pocket.
Byron Marshall – Got to play a lot in the 4th. Lined up out wide and caught a pass, showing his versatility. 6-21 on the ground, including a TD. Solid #4/#5 type of RB, but not explosive or much of a playmaker. Good pass catcher.
WR
Alshon Jeffery – Up and down in his Eagles debut. Ran the wrong route on 3rd/12 and that forced Wentz to throw to Ertz, who was short of the sticks. Jeffery did get going on the third drive. 2-23. Made it look so easy. Doesn’t catch the ball…just engulfs it. You can see how gifted he is.
Nelson Agholor – Good game. Played slot for most of 1st half. 2-28. Caught short pass from Wentz and turned that into gain of 7. Got ball on end around and got 6 yards, but wiped out due to penalty. Caught pass late in the half. Got the ball over the middle and added 10 RAC yards. Good hands and RAC yards on both catches. That’s what you want from a slot guy. Looked quick, confident and elusive with the ball in his hands.
Marcus Johnson – Good game. Didn’t start off great. Block in back penalty wiped out Agholor run. Dumb. Blatant penalty. Caught first pass in the mid-2nd. Clean hands catch by sideline for 7 yds. Snatched the ball. Made a big time play late in the half. Caught a pass on the run and in the middle of the field. Turned on the jets and flew down the field for a gain of 38. Showed good hands and speed on that.
Mack Hollins – Only 1-6 as receiver. McGloin put that ball behind him, but Hollins still made the grab and made it look easy. Had several passes thrown his way, but most were just off target. McGloin is his kryptonite.
Greg Ward – Slot receiver. Only had one grab, but boy was it impressive. Went for 29 yards and made the catch in traffic. Had 3 defenders around him. Found some room, located the ball, adjusted to it and made the catch. Looks comfortable in the middle of the field.
Shelton Gibson – Didn’t catch a pass, but was part of a key play. Got open deep late in the game. Evans tried to hit him, but the ball was a bit underthrown. Gibson tried to make the grab, but the DB hit him and kept one arm from going for the ball. Drew the PI penalty in the end zone. That set up the winning TD.
David Watford – Bad game. Had one good catch, one double-catch (bobbled ball) and created an INT. Had a pass come his way. Got his hands on it, but couldn’t secure the ball. CB ripped it away for the pick.
TE
Brent Celek – Up and down game as a blocker. Got knocked back on first snap of the game. Was part of pass pro in late 1st and got driven back into Wentz by DE. Got blown up by DE on run to his side with backup offense. 1-18 as receiver. Caught pass from McGloin down the seam in early 2nd Qtr.
Zach Ertz – Got 11 yds on only catch of the game. Came up a foot short of the sticks, but pretty good effort in trying to get there. Drifted back toward the LOS before catching the ball. You would rather he keep depth to be closer to the sticks. Was awful as a blocker. Got driven back 3 yards on 1st/GL. That blew up run play. Lost the battle as blocker on most snaps. Discouraging.
.@ZERTZ_86 TE @Eagles is a problem in 11 personnel. There is no strong side run game when you are knocked 3 yards backwards by Jerry Hughes pic.twitter.com/HZz6z46Nzj
— Brian Baldinger (@BaldyNFL) August 18, 2017
Trey Burton – Quiet game. 2-7 as receiver. No highlights or lowlights. Up and down as a blocker.
Billy Brown – Another strong showing. This kid continues to impress the heck out of me. He’s big, fluid, runs well and is just a natural pass catcher. That’s a real compliment for a TE. 4-34. Just catches the ball with ease and then I love the way he turns upfield and gets extra yards. Smooth. Willing blocker. Isn’t going to win every time, but effort is there. Had a couple of nice blocks in the game. Got away with false start in early 2nd Qtr. Rocked before snap.
Adam Zaruba – Solid block on run play in the early 3rd Qtr. Passed DE onto LT and then blocked LB. Had catch and run for 10 yds in the late 3rd. You can see he is big and athletic. Naturally gifted. Just a major project.
OL
1st – Johnson– Seumalo – Kelce – Brooks – Tobin
2nd – Gordon – Warmack – Wiz – Thomas – Hart
3rd – Salako – Greene – Neary – Orlosky – Hart
The blocking in this game wasn’t good.
Lane Johnson – Started at LT and struggled. Got blown up on the first play of the game, forcing Blount to go deep and wide on run play. TFL. Got driven back on 3rd/GL. Had some good blocks as well, but those lowlights were bad.
Isaac Seumalo – LG. Better than last week. Looked athletic and moved well. I’d still like to see more power from him. Showed good awareness on stunts and plays where DL were slanting. Gifted blocker with room to be really good.
Chance Warmack – Backup LG. Good run blocker. Strong, physical. Struggled at times in pass pro. Tried to hit DT, whiffed. Got him off balance. Quickness of J. Worthy was an issue on some plays. If Warmack gets his hands on you, he will win, but has to get better at actually getting his hands on defenders. Called for tripping in the mid-2nd Qtr. Worthy got by him and Warmack made a desperate move. Cleaned up a rusher who beat Gordon to the inside late in the half. Good awareness and hustle. Good combo block on Clement’s TD. Helped move DL off the ball with Wiz and then got his hands on the LB.
.@chancewarmack and Stefen Wisniewski run a clinic on how to execute a combo block..shoulder2shoulder and foot2foot..this is a beautiful pic.twitter.com/N5u01IMcaP
— Brian Baldinger (@BaldyNFL) August 18, 2017
Matt Tobin – Starting RT. Better than I thought when watching live. Gone to SEA in trade.
Dillon Gordon – Backup LT. Better showing than the opener. Smart player who understands positioning and uses his hands well. Footwork isn’t ideal. Hops more than you’d like. Can be too upright at times. Does a good job of mirroring rushers. Got much better at taking away inside moves this week. Still was beaten to inside more than you’d like. Talented project. Shows LT traits, but needs a lot of work.
Stefen Wisniewski – Backup C. Struggles with reach blocks. Doesn’t have Kelce’s lateral movement skills or quickness. Got blown up on at least a couple of reach blocks. Those killed run plays. Part of good combo block that led to Clement’s TD.
Taylor Hart -#2 RT. Up and down showing. Very good in pass pro on some plays. Moved his feet, locked onto rushers and controlled them. Other times he struggled with speed and athleticism. Got driven back by DE on run to his side. Play went nowhere. Inconsistent as run blocker. Good effort, but doesn’t always hit his target cleanly or get movement. Got blamed for sack in 4th when he let inside rusher go and he took blitzing DB. Not sure if that was his fault or RG Orlosky.
Dallas Thomas – #2 RG. Great feet. Moves very naturally. Uses his hands well. Doesn’t always play with ideal strength/power. At times looks like a finesse OG, which isn’t ideal for a guy with his size. Can look great in pass pro. Able to mirror DL and control them with his hands. Beaten by DT on INT that was intended for Hollins. DT exploded into Thomas, then cut to inside and got some pressure. Watching his footwork makes me wonder if they should give him snaps at RT. I think he has a legit shot to make the roster.
Darrell Greene -#3 G. Tough, physical but sloppy blocker. Poor footwork and not good with his hands.
H. Vaitai – DNP.
Aaron Neary – #3 C. Better than last week, but struggles at times with his pad level. DTs who get under him can drive Neary into the backfield. Has good size and does have some impressive moments when he gets good movement. Effective in pass pro when he gets his feet set and is able to extend his arms into the defender. Had one play where he slung DT to the ground. Love to see that strength and nasty streak. Does a good job of keeping his head on a swivel on pass plays where he’s not occupied. Looking to see if anyone is unblocked or has beaten their blocker. I think the preseason finale will be huge for him. Lots of reps will really show us where he’s at.
Tyler Orlosky – #3 RG. Looked pretty good in pass pro. Struggled with quick moves by athletic DTs on a couple of plays. Good strength.
Victor Salako – #3 LT. Love his size. Uses that and good positioning to be effective blocker, but doesn’t have the footwork to be LT in the NFL. Still, interesting player. Smart guy and uses his length to his advantage.
_
Wentz may end up being similar to McNabb in regards to consistency of mechanics – when he is on, he is a very good QB. When he is off, it can be a roller coaster. If Wentz can establish more consistent mechanics and learn to “get into rhythm” quickly, that should go a long way to helping him succeed. Pederson, as the play caller, also needs to assist his QB by giving him some rhythm plays right away.
I think Wentz may be a bit mentally stronger then Mcnabb, so when he does get into a slow start or funk he has the ability to pull himself out of it. There were games where if Mcnabb started out bad you knew it was going to be that way the rest of the game. He would mentally snowball.
Could be true, I guess we’ll need to see how things go in Wentz’s career. McNabb dealt with tons and tons of adversity, but you’re right he would get frustrated at times and struggle to get out of it.
Mcnabb also created his own adversity at times.
At times.
That’s the nature of a franchise QB. Name one that hasn’t gone through some type of adversity.
Brady, until he got caught cheating.
From high school, DMAC was typically the best athlete on the field. That was largely true when he was slinging it for Syracuse. DMAC was competitive, but he never really needed to adapt until he was humiliated at the NFL draft. Everything from that day forward was a learning curve.
Wentz does not have DMAC’s gifts…or his armor chinks.
What gift does Mcnabb have that Wentz doesn’t?
Now I couldn’t say, but in this stage of his pro career, McNabb had the feet of a point guard, and was very fast, and was not easy to bring down. Wentz can move, but he isn’t going to buy the time that McNabb could, and that may be a good thing. Wentz is not a running threat, and he’s got to have other arrows in his quiver.
Air guitar. Definitely air guitar.
Yeah he might be, still early, but it definitely isn’t easy to change habits. You can practice good habits all day, but when you get thrown in the fire you go back to what’s natural. It’s probably the only real draw back to those red shirts. QB’s can’t really simulate being thrown into the fire, and have a coach hammer you rep after rep.
This is a big year for his evaluation. Last year was defined by missed opportunities and making opportunities from nothing that only a handful of guys in the league could. When the system broke down, Wentz was very good at improvising, if he had guys that could sand lot a little better with him, I think he puts out a dozen extra highlight plays and he gets a much bigger national profile. Anyway, the missed opportunities, we can get away with hand-waving away because he was a rookie making a huge competition leap, and he had no WR’s. This year is the exciting year.
Can’t really compare a 2nd Year player to one of the best QB’s that ever played for the Eagles.
Worm Burners aside.
After he wins the division and wins a playoff game, then you could make a fair comparison, but until he shows he can help us by putting up a winning record, we should hold off making comparisons.
Having said that, I think he can become even better than Mcnabb ever was but he needs help from his teammates in order to correctly display his talents.
Now that he has good WR options and a good team around him, this may the year to see how good Wentz can be.
Hope we look back at this season and say “yeah, that was the year where Wentz proved he can win on the biggest stage against the highest level of competition.”
God, you remind me of those awful Sundays with McNabb when he would miss his first few passes, and you’d just know it’s going to be on of those days. He could just never get on track.
god now you made me remember that feeling
Sorry.
Just keep firing.
Overreacting to DJ Pumphrey’s Preseason: A Film Review
https://www.bleedinggreennation.com/2017/8/23/16187768/donnel-pumphrey-dj-eagles-philadelphia-preseason-film-review-running-back-tape-rookie-nfl-draft-2017
Still a 12 year old
It may seem extravagant, but a stone-handed TE who is fairly agile and cannot be easily moved would be a sight for sore eyes. If running…a lot is a goal, our RB’s need some love from the TE’s. Zach is more a WR than a TE, and Brent is past his prime. A powerful blocking TE would also lend some heft to the interior line runs. This would mark an instant upgrade in our offense.
Maybe just use Gordon as a TE in those sets
Would bet my right testicle that it will be addressed next off season.
Stone hands? Just bring out an extra tackle at that point. The goal really isn’t running a lot. You’d love to have such a huge lead that you could run all day to run out the clock, sure. But thats running before you can crawl. Got to be built to get that huge lead first, and you do that with balance, but primarily through the air.
In the mean time, having any of these TE’s blocking a DE…that’s on Doug.
Its football. A TE is going to be blocking a DE at some point regardless of coach.
It’s 2017 football, you don’t put a modern TE on a modern Pass rusher unless you are going the other direction in a hurry.
It truly is remarkable that DP runs a “hard” camp by today’s standards yet there are no major injuries. Props to him for knowing when to let the vets rest, and huge props to Hulls. The job he has done with the players health is nothing short of remarkable.
I think you are going to see a lot of veteran FAs want to come here because they see how vets are treated and the amazing lack of injuries.
Best thing Chip Kelly did for Philadelphia was introduce the sports science into our training regimen. And Lurie deserves credit for keeping the ball rolling, so to speak.
Fipp is by far the best thing Chip did for Philadelphia. Then Jordan Hicks. I’ll give Huls the bronze medal.
I dunno man- without a highly touted and effective sports science/nutrition/training program, there’s no way to quantify how much of an impact it’s had on our team as a whole.
Since Chip came to town, we’ve been an above average healthy team; I hate talking about the subject, but there’s no denying it’s made a huge difference in games lost.
That’s true, it’s hard to quantify.
I agree with all but that last part about veterans. I hope that is where it is going, but I won’t forget Frank Gore being like wait they do what?? Turn the plane around. A lot of vets take pride in knowing how to take care of themselves, and don’t want to deal with a crazy regimen. That said, we scaled a lot of the Chip craziness back, and it seems like Doug (an old-school veteran advocate) and Hulls reached a nice balance so far.
I don’t think the Gore thing really translates anymore at all. Chip and Shady are gone…
off topic but what do you think of the Celtics’ trade? Interesting that Ainge traded away that Nets pick.
Ainge has evidently blown a number of bigtime trades lately so anything he does is suspect, that being said…
Isiah Thomas showed in the playoffs what a liability he is once the competition ratchets up. He was completely ineffective offensively against the Cavs and naturally his defense is just atrocious, someone with his size will never be a good defender no matter what he does.
Jae Crowder is whatever, he’d be a good rotation player for when Lebron needs a rest but that’s about it.
I think the Cavs obviously are better with Irving than Thomas, but at least they got something out of a desperate situation.
Next years draft pick is nice, but will Lebron even be around for it to matter?
IMO Celtics win trade handily but Cavs needed to make the best of a bad situation.
I can’t believe that the Cavs have the best player in the NBA, and they are going to have to blow the whole thing up and start over next year.
But they’re not going to have him next year, right?
Nope, he’s going to be in Philly
Is that a thing?
He and Simmons are close. Embiid’s charasmatic as hell.
There’s a school of thought that the Sixers make the playoffs and it’ll be an option. They’ll be crazy deep and can help reduce his regular season workload. Plus they’ll still have a ton of assets and cap. And it keeps him in the East away from the slugfest playoffs.
They won’t be favorites but they’re probably in the conversation.
Hm, okay, it doesn’t seem like BronBron to tie his legacy to two guys who’ve played about 30 games total in three years?
He’s more likely to go to the Timberwolves or something.
He should go to San Antonio. Old Bron plus the Klaw would murder people.
It is in my world
Right I think to clarify I’m asking if Irving is good enough to trade the Nets pick for (I discount Thomas and Crowder part of the trade). And more importantly, how is the nucleus of the C’s going to compare to the Sixers.
*shrug* both are overrated little guys in a big man’s league. The Cavs are LeBron. Without him, the East is a wasteland.
Thomas = Iverson
Iverson >>>> Thomas
I think they’re rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic because both the Cavs and Celtics are going to be getting processed all over their faces.
OMG! Sheil Kapadia is coming back to cover the Eagles (and other Philly sports)!!!
https://twitter.com/DerekBodnerNBA/status/900378610669936640
How much?
How much coverage? No idea but he quit ESPN….so a lot?
for the subscription to The Athletic
Oh, no idea. Just saw the news on Twitter. Just excited to have Sheil back covering the Eagles.
Godner posted it:
$8 buck month to month
$60 bucks a year
$48 if you presubscribe
$30 if you were part of Bodners Patreon
For that you get access to Bo Wulf, Sheil Kapadia, Godner, Mike O Connor, Rich Hoffman, Charlie O Connor. Plus you get all the national guys like Ken Rosenthal and all the other cities too.
And they are still adding a ton of talent.
I love this model. I get to support really talented people and know they are getting fairly compensated.
For $5 a month that’s totally worth it.
Thanks for the info.
I disagree about the value, Philly media is saturated with coverage. All free, some of it already great. I miss Sheil, but the thought of putting info behind paywalls is not something I can support.
That’s fair.
This model is the future though. It ensures your favorite writers don’t get laid off so a company can “pivot to video” and don’t have to write half a dozen 32 reasons why Carson Wentz is handsome listicles slideshows a week
I hear that, but speaking of video, I’m already balancing a budget on which streaming services I get to experience. Like I gave up NFL Rewind (and my access to the preseason with it) to free up some space for the Sunday ticket. I gave up amazon prime to make room for HBO Now while Game of Thrones is on. This is fine responsible decision making with limited resources.
Would hate to see that spread into my other media consumption. If everyone does it, we all chose the 1 or 2 groups we can afford, I get my 1 streaming service, my one group of sports writers, and my one source of news, and suddenly we can’t have a conversation because we are all informed wildly different. Which I know may be laying it on thick on an issue that is already somewhat of a problem. But I don’t like it.
The alternative is you don’t have any writers over the age of 25.
I inquired (and had a phone interview) about the BGN managing editor position last fall when BLG left. $2k a month, contractor wage. By the time you take out the extra taxes and pay for health care that’s nothing. For what is a full time (plus some) gig.
You can’t support a family on that.
And for what? To get hired by ESPN (massive layoffs), PhillyMag (ooops), FoxSports (pivoted) ViceSports (dead).
You’re only real hopes are CSN (which is subsidized by other means) the papers (slowly paywalling) or VC funded sites (PhilllyVoice, Billy Penn) which are just burning cash hoping to find a way to profitability.
Shoot. Can’t argue with you there, but hope it is limited to the exceptional, not the status quo.
I mean the subscription trend is getting crazy. Lost my primary care doctor who decided he’s going to a limited case-load subscription model. “For a meager $140 a month, you can see me as much as you want!” Dude I see you once a year and you aren’t a hospital, I still need to pay for health insurance, get out of here, and I hope you fail so this doesn’t catch on. Then a primary care doc moved into an office next to us with the same model. How come everyone wants a slice of my limited monthly income?
But you’re right, some of these guys deserve more money.
That’s an absurd use of the subscription model. My god.
Healthcare in this country is just a mess. I had a sore throat twice in one month, went to an Urgent Care clinic and came out owing $640. And yes, I pay for health insurance.
Jeez… Id have went with the warm salt water and crossed my fingers
The crazy thing is, a year or two ago, the same thing would have cost $200. It was bought out by Banner, a corp, and they just up and raised the prices. They don’t tell you that, of course, until you get the bill. Meanwhile, at the Minute Clinic, my wife paid $85 for the same service (one time).
Not too many companies can charge you after they do the service and not give any kind of estimate.
Kind of like my HoA….they might be the worst.
Yeah? We have an HoA and they aren’t too bad. Get the occasional nasty letter because of a brown spot or whatever, but no real big deal.
You know mine was never an issue until a few months ago, and now I am actually considering going to my congressman. Don’t want to get into because it would be a lot to type. Could be odd coincident, and they aren’t scum of the earth. Starting to seem like that isn’t possible. I am pretty ideal member of an HoA btw. Check for dues is out the day the notice comes, yard kept neat. Make improvements on the look of the house every year. Maybe I’ll update you if they turn out to be batshit like I think!
I’m sorry to hear that. They can certainly have surprising power in certain situations.
Working in the mental health industry, we aren’t too pleased with giving services then getting paid (sometimes) much later. Unfortunately, we can’t ask for a deductible or co-insurance up front per our contract with insurance companies (while we may know a client has a deductible, we cannot know if claims are processing to eliminate that deductible, therefore insurance companies insist we wait until they tell us what the patient owes before asking for payment, this gets us burnt, all. the. time.)
That being said. I’m in mental health, it’s relatively simple. You come in for a service, with one provider, one service, one billing line, and we know the contract rate with all the various insurances. Easy to explain to people and be transparent.
Medical bills are a mess. A million billing lines for every little thing. And your insurance goes to town on it, that procedure needed pre-auth: patient responsibility, that x-ray tech wasn’t a network provider (hence no cost-controlled network rate):patient responsibility, that service is part of a different benefit tier: Deductible-patient responsibility, etc. It’s a real shit show, and no one knows how much it will cost until the insurance gods speak. Some Providers certainly exploit it, insurance companies pay enough to cover cost and perhaps then-some, then honest folks like you who pay their bills turn it into a killing.
Yeah, I know, my wife was in that business for 20 years. Just a cesspool, and all the problems seem to bottleneck with the insurance companies.
Scary time to work in the world of media. Just praying I can carve out a career before the bottom falls off.
It’s why I decided getting a real day job was the best long term bet and moved on from hoping to do it full time.
The other thing is it makes the fandom element suck. Just completely saps all the joy.
Best of luck to you though.
Luckily I’m on the broadcast side and do a very high demand, well paying job. I should be safe in theory no matter what happens to media. Gotta stay on my toes though!
It’s a career where the side hustle is the full time job. Guys make a living doing guest spots on TV, writing for other outlets, podcasting. Tough, tough racket.
I wish I was a fiscally responsible with my media consumption.
I don’t. And thank God I don’t work for a company that tracks page clicks/websites visited.
I’m a cheapskate at heart.
Me too. Despite what I say online
Do you have a link to that 32 reasons Carson Wentz is handsome slide show? That sounds like really interesting football coverage right at my level!
I thought at first you said something similar to listicles but not exactly listicles.
Maybe I do need to switch to video?
IMO, quality > quantity.
Sure, but in this case the quality is a product of large quantity of free media. Just scooping out all the quality and putting it behind a paywall. So to me it isn’t quality vs quantity, just paying for quality. Which, D3FB made the point to me: is totally fair. It’s our loss, we either loss that quality coverage, or lose 5-8 bucks a month. But it’s a fair loss. And probably the way it should be. *grumble grumble*
True, but I get sufficient quality with Tommy and Jimmy.
If they added Lawlor to that list, I’d consider.
I was hemming and hawing considering it, then I read your comment. That would def put me in.
Tommy seems like he’s too nice to monetize his stuff. He should, though.
Perhaps you’ve clicked on “Kapernick’s career is over” or “Melania’s IQ will surprise you” or some suck clickbait. Tommy is monetarized, just not to the same extent.
cut out some of those guys, replace with Tommy and Jimmy, add podcasts, I’ll pay $10
I didn’t want to reply on the old article, but what you said there about supporting the journalism makes sense. It just really chaps my ass that I pay a not exactly insignificant amount of money each month for access via my phone and cable bills, yet none of that money is directed to the content providers.
This must have been the first game in Tobin’s career where he looked good at RT. He has always been brutal on the right side.
Good enough to get us a draft pick
It was probably going to be a 4th before the game…
Wondering how much you should expect a TE to be able to block a guy like Hughes. I’m not sure there’s a TE in the NFL that could block up Graham or Cox on a play like that, either.
He didn’t actually have to do that much there. Just absorb the initial punch and the play is past you. This is like the 3rd run block from that game I have seen, and it looks like he is pass blocking.
Jerry Hughes weighs 256lbs; he’s not Graham’s or Cox’s size.
Does Ertz just not care about blocking? Every time I see a bad clip by him, it feels like there is no effort there. In the clip Tommy posted, he knew where the back was going to be, and didn’t seal at all. It was almost like he expected it to develop more quickly, and just let him through when he thought it was safe.
Bad technique combined with not a ton of effort.
Takes a giant lateral step, and just waits for Hughes to initiate contact.
It should be a small lateral step and then getting vertical against Hughes.
You can be a wall off blocker but not at 250lbs.
I just posted on the comment below how it feels like he is pass blocking on his run blocks. Just asking to get blown up…right?
The way he blocks it is fine if he’s on the backside of the play. He just can’t do that shit if he’s at the point of attack.
It’s probably because he’s worried about whiffing the block altogether and if he was a rookie or second year guy it’d be understandable. He’s been in the league too long to be hesitant about his ability to execute a simple drive block.
Wasn’t he someone that was always going to struggle with blocks in the first place?
He wasn’t the best blocker coming out of stanford but he really should be better than he is by now.
He’s got the physical ability to at least be a consistently solid blocker.
I hate to apply my wrestler’s logic, but if you’re 250, you should be able to legally hold up just about anybody 260 and below.
Thought he saw a blocking specialist one off season. Do you think he’s regressed or just turribel to begin with?
He was getting better. Last year IIRC he was ok at it in camp but the injury clearly messed him up for most of the season in that regard.
The annoying part is he’s occasionally a pretty good blocker. He may just be taking it easy because it’s preseason, but he’s got to be able to at least hold the POA on a drive block, it’s gonna fuck the offense up if he can’t
Are we still talking about Ertz, or has this now strayed into Kelce territory?
I guess we can hope it’s just preseason effort. (Though I guess we saw how effective his “real game” effort was last year…)
Schmertz.
Soft.
https://www.theplayerstribune.com/lane-johnson-eagles-dont-mess-with-philly/
I always like the player tribunes so if you didn’t know about them then here’s one from one of our own.
Was just about to post. Sad that it’s after a poor showing from him
I don’t care what happened just before reading…but we better “whup some ass against the Redskins” or I’ll have to cringe-purge this from my memory banks.
This is actually really good! Good on Lane. Hope he has a great year for us.
That is a fun great read! ‘ preesh indeed
Awesome read. Thanks for sharing. I don’t mean any disrespect towards him with this comment but he sounds, I guess the word would be thuggish then I thought.
I dont remember an Eagles team in which the players were so hyped about the team.
I’m kind of having a down emotional time with my $ league fantasy team. Drafted 11 out of 12 in the snake format. Relatively standard scoring. I just look at this group and it screams “mediocre”
1 – Jordy, 2 – DeMarco, 3 – Carlos Hyde (who I hate), 4 – Tyreek Hill, 5 – Larry Fitz, 6 – Jimmy Graham, 7 – Doug Martin, 8 – Marcus Mariota, 9 – Thomas Rawls, 10 – Kenny Britt, 11 – Jon Stewart, 12 – Rex Burkhead, 13 – Tedd Ginn, 14 – ZAY JONES!!!!!, 15 – Rams D, 16 – Blair Walsh, 17 – Brian Hoyer.
Waiver wire my friend. And Kenjon is probably available
Kenjon got knocked out.
https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/football/news/chargers-kenjon-barner-enters-concussion-protocol/
But he’s in the league…
You got Mariota in the 8th round?
It is a pretty mediocre team though and your RBs are weak.
Picking at 11 and too much talent at RB went in front of me. I was hoping Devonta Freeman fell to me, when he didn’t, I didn’t find too much attractive left. If Doug Martin gets the ball full time when he’s back from suspension OR Rawls displaces fat boy in Seattle, I’ll feel better at RB.
I don’t love it either, but you have something to work with. Waiver wire is by far the most important part of FFB. You be aight my dude.
My first 2 drafts are this weekend. Hoping for the best!
Sometimes you is get the those drafts where nothing goes right. I like Mariota though.
Eagles couldn’t have acknowledged this guy and at least sent some gesture of good will that was a bit tongue-in-cheek including a condolences card?
Maybe they are afraid of setting a precedent but just seems like a missed opportunity for a little good PR.
“A spokesperson for the Eagles declined to comment about Riegel’s last wishes.”
http://www.philly.com/philly/obituaries/eagles-dying-wish-jeffrey-riegel-20170823.html
They should send 8 rookies; hazing with a good outcome!
I was thinking that if i were an ex Eagle i might call another exEagle and just show up and just take a handle
That joke was funny the first hundred or so times, but I don’t think the
Eagles are obligated to acknowledge every yokel in Delco that repeats such a stale joke.