Insein
Footballguy
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** Official 2014 Philadelphia Eagles Thread ** (3 Viewers)
- Thread starter Awful Waffle
- Start date
Amused to Death
Footballguy
Just announced on 97.5, surgery likely - out 6 to 8 weeks. I think it was per Jeff Maclain(sp?).
Snotbubbles
Footballguy
That's not the worst news. He'll be back and fresh for the stretch run with Evan Mathis.
Bigboy10182000
Footballguy
Kwai Chang Caine
Footballguy
Not in a million years man. On the bright side, he's still going to get receptions and he's still a better pick than most of the RBs taken in round one. I think with Foles getting more attention now, teams won't always sell out to be McCoy.
fred_1_15301
Footballguy
I think the biggest worry is can they keep Foles upright with a patchwork line? If he goes so does the season. The good thing is that they've built a nice cushion with a 3-0 start.
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Insein
Footballguy
San Fran seems ripe for the picking. They'll be desperate but desperate teams make mistakes. If we win in SF, that could start the downward spiral for Harbaugh.
Amused to Death
Footballguy
Agree about SF, but its hard to see them starting 1-3. I saw a stat on PFT that San Fran's been outscored 50+ to 3 in the 2nd half of games. That bodes well for the Eagles.
Bigboy10182000
Footballguy
It does bode well but you can only lose so many OL before it starts to really hurt and I think we're at that point after Kelce's injury. He does so much for this offense and there's no one on the team that can replace him.
unckeyherb
Footballguy
Kelce is probably as valuable to this offense as Peters. Dude is 30 yards down field blocking on runs and passes. Not a lot of guys his size in the league that can do that. Crushing loss.
CentralPA
Footballguy
Insein
Footballguy
Bigboy10182000
Footballguy
I think theyre going to work Wade Smith in at center. It will be interesting to see what he has left in the tank.
Bigboy10182000
Footballguy
Didn't he hit the uprite yesterday on a kick off? Sick. Almost drilled a 70 yard FG.
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Mighty Mice
Footballguy
Crazy that they ended the game yesterday down the starting RT, RG, C, LT... and still scored 37.
Hell, they scored 10 points after the Peters ejection, with 4 backups on the OLine, when the game was tied 27-27 and they had to have points. Driving 76 yards for a TD after the mêlée, with all the backups, was clutch.
This Foles kid has moxie and toughness, no doubt, and this team is making plays/getting stops when they need to.
Hard game ahead, traveling out West and playing a very physical team who will be hungry to win. Looking forward to it!
Kwai Chang Caine
Footballguy
Ya know living in this city where our greatest sports hero is fictional, maybe we should start calling Foles The Real Rocky! It's better than the Foler Bear at least.
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Insein
Footballguy
Kwai Chang Caine
Footballguy
GoBirds
Footballguy
Snotbubbles
Footballguy
Long Ball Larry
Footballguy
Barfley.Snotbubbles said:
In other news, Lions sign Henery: http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/eye-on-football/24721198/lions-cut-kicker-nate-freese-sign-ex-eagles-k-alex-henery
Amused to Death
Footballguy
I was gonna go with "Former Eagle" but yours works too.Snotbubbles said:
Henery will probably do OK there in a dome. His weak leg on kickoffs was irritating and he wasn't a good kicker, but he was good enough to have a job in the NFL.
Bigboy10182000
Footballguy
I've only read a little so far but this was pretty damn good. Please check it out if you have time and you're interested.
What makes Chip.....Chip?
What makes Chip.....Chip?
Bigboy10182000
Footballguy
@JimmyKempski: Bennie Logan leads all NFL defensive linemen in tackles.
Ash
Footballguy
Some things from the Washington game (don't know why it takes so long for the All-22 film to come out)
The series before the long Desean TD, WAS ran the exact mirror of that play action post-dig combo and Jenkins bit hard on the dig but Cousins went to a RB underneath. They came back to it first play of the next series, this time Allen bit and they scored. Good playcalling by Gruden.
It's all been said before obviously, but Foles was $$ in this game. Mentally he was really "on". Got rid of the ball on time, threw it away when he needed to and when he moved it was with purpose, rather than just drifting around waiting to get hit. To not get sacked in a game where the line fell apart with injuries is an impressive feat. It's impossible to over praise that throw for Matthews 2nd TD, but the catch doesn't get enough credit.
There was an interesting play with about 30 seconds to go before the half, looked like an overthrow to nobody at the goalline. WAS started in a Cover 2 look, but rolled the left S up late then blitzed him and a LB from the left side. The right side S went to the left hash as the other S walked up to the line, which left two Eagles in single coverage on the right side of the formation. Foles kept the single high S left with his eyes then went back right and threw to where Maclin would have been at the goalline if he'd run a post route instead of breaking it off. Because the S had been held on the left hash, the post was open so possibly an option route where Maclin didn't make the right read.
There were a few nice anticipation throws as well. Those outs to Matthews and Cooper's 3rd down conversion were all thrown just before the WR made the break.
Riley Cooper's not having much luck lately. He was open 4 or 5 times vs. the Colts on shallow cross routes, Foles didn't go to him once. He got open on a post route and would probably have scored but the ball was slightly tipped by one of the underneath defenders and deflected behind him.
Davis started out with all zone coverage and WAS did a good job scheming guys open and Cousins ran it well. From some time in the 2nd quarter on they mixed in a lot of "man under" with either one or two safeties playing over the top of man coverage underneath. That's when things tightened up a bit (but only a bit) and we did start to see some tighter coverage, pass breakups and getting off the field on 3rd down.
Pass rush is a big concern. Cousins dropped back 51 times and we barely got anyone near him. Graham had a nice play or two and Cox got in there once or twice but not much of what you'd call real pressure. We're on pace for 16 sacks. Jeebus.
They can make all the excuses they want about Boykin being small, he's still the best CB on the team. I would have matched him up with Jackson whenever they were in man, nickel or not. Not like Jackson's going to out-physical him.
See the post above, Bennie Logan is all over the field making tackles. He locks out his arms and keeps guys off his body and he's so agile he can just keep moving laterally on those outside zone runs. He's consistently in on plays near the sideline and very rarely ends up on the ground. That was a great draft pick. Cox is playing well against the run as well.
Trent Williams is a hell of a player. Easily handled Cox, Cole or whoever went against him all day, no help.
If Tobin can play next week that will get Gardner off the field, which will be a good thing. He's struggled badly, more plays than not in that game he was getting walked back or giving up outside pressure. Heremanns is playing well, Kelly is doing OK, getting better in the run game, but still plays pass pro like a T sometimes, letting a man outside him and riding him upfield. At G that's middle pressure, so that's bad. He still needs to be more aggressive with his hands, especially inside. You can see a real difference between him and Todd technique wise. Even on pass plays Heremanns takes a step forward and gets hands on his guy ASAP before settling back. Kelly at times is still retreating initially like a T. That said he doesn't look completely overmatched like Gardner has at times. Molk struggled in pass pro too. He'll have a NT over him this week as well, hopefully they've got a plan to give him some help. Maybe a few games experience will settle him in a bit, I hope so. He made some decent run blocks though. Still, get well Jason Kelce.
Tough road trip this week, but the 49ers do look shaky.
The series before the long Desean TD, WAS ran the exact mirror of that play action post-dig combo and Jenkins bit hard on the dig but Cousins went to a RB underneath. They came back to it first play of the next series, this time Allen bit and they scored. Good playcalling by Gruden.
It's all been said before obviously, but Foles was $$ in this game. Mentally he was really "on". Got rid of the ball on time, threw it away when he needed to and when he moved it was with purpose, rather than just drifting around waiting to get hit. To not get sacked in a game where the line fell apart with injuries is an impressive feat. It's impossible to over praise that throw for Matthews 2nd TD, but the catch doesn't get enough credit.
There was an interesting play with about 30 seconds to go before the half, looked like an overthrow to nobody at the goalline. WAS started in a Cover 2 look, but rolled the left S up late then blitzed him and a LB from the left side. The right side S went to the left hash as the other S walked up to the line, which left two Eagles in single coverage on the right side of the formation. Foles kept the single high S left with his eyes then went back right and threw to where Maclin would have been at the goalline if he'd run a post route instead of breaking it off. Because the S had been held on the left hash, the post was open so possibly an option route where Maclin didn't make the right read.
There were a few nice anticipation throws as well. Those outs to Matthews and Cooper's 3rd down conversion were all thrown just before the WR made the break.
Riley Cooper's not having much luck lately. He was open 4 or 5 times vs. the Colts on shallow cross routes, Foles didn't go to him once. He got open on a post route and would probably have scored but the ball was slightly tipped by one of the underneath defenders and deflected behind him.
Davis started out with all zone coverage and WAS did a good job scheming guys open and Cousins ran it well. From some time in the 2nd quarter on they mixed in a lot of "man under" with either one or two safeties playing over the top of man coverage underneath. That's when things tightened up a bit (but only a bit) and we did start to see some tighter coverage, pass breakups and getting off the field on 3rd down.
Pass rush is a big concern. Cousins dropped back 51 times and we barely got anyone near him. Graham had a nice play or two and Cox got in there once or twice but not much of what you'd call real pressure. We're on pace for 16 sacks. Jeebus.
They can make all the excuses they want about Boykin being small, he's still the best CB on the team. I would have matched him up with Jackson whenever they were in man, nickel or not. Not like Jackson's going to out-physical him.
See the post above, Bennie Logan is all over the field making tackles. He locks out his arms and keeps guys off his body and he's so agile he can just keep moving laterally on those outside zone runs. He's consistently in on plays near the sideline and very rarely ends up on the ground. That was a great draft pick. Cox is playing well against the run as well.
Trent Williams is a hell of a player. Easily handled Cox, Cole or whoever went against him all day, no help.
If Tobin can play next week that will get Gardner off the field, which will be a good thing. He's struggled badly, more plays than not in that game he was getting walked back or giving up outside pressure. Heremanns is playing well, Kelly is doing OK, getting better in the run game, but still plays pass pro like a T sometimes, letting a man outside him and riding him upfield. At G that's middle pressure, so that's bad. He still needs to be more aggressive with his hands, especially inside. You can see a real difference between him and Todd technique wise. Even on pass plays Heremanns takes a step forward and gets hands on his guy ASAP before settling back. Kelly at times is still retreating initially like a T. That said he doesn't look completely overmatched like Gardner has at times. Molk struggled in pass pro too. He'll have a NT over him this week as well, hopefully they've got a plan to give him some help. Maybe a few games experience will settle him in a bit, I hope so. He made some decent run blocks though. Still, get well Jason Kelce.
Tough road trip this week, but the 49ers do look shaky.
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Long Ball Larry
Footballguy
Ash, are you seeing anything as to why there are so few running lanes? Last year, there were wide-open holes everywhere. Obviously the OL issues are probably the biggest piece, but I'm wondering what the loss of DeSean and very little read-option might mean in terms of the spacing and making it easier to defend the run.
babydemon90
Footballguy
When do we sign Richie Incognito....
unckeyherb
Footballguy
Stop it.
Ash
Footballguy
I don't think the WRs have much to do with it. We lost one guy who is a home run threat on every play but having Maclin back in his place isn't too much of a drop off there. I've been a Maclin critic in the past but he's doing all the right things on the field so far this year. Cooper's still Cooper. Avant was one of my favourite Eagles for a long time, but Matthews is an upgrade even now and should continue to improve. Ertz is also improved over last year as well. Throw in Sproles and as a unit the group of pass catchers is improved overall, including the ability to stretch the field.Long Ball Larry said:
I don't see much difference in the way teams are playing coverage against us. On base downs its' mostly still single high man, or Cover 3 type looks with the odd variation here and there. Teams would at times shade the S to Jackson last year but that's about it.
Mostly I think it's down to inferior personnel due to injuries and lack of continuity in the lineup. Lane Johnson is a very good run blocker overall but excels at driving his man down the line and opening up big cutback lanes. In his place we have Gardner, a 3rd string player who is struggling to prevent his man having an impact on most plays. Mathis is one of the best in the league (Kelce is also on the list) at getting to and controlling his man at the 2nd level. He does a great job of engaging and then working his body into position between the defender and the ball carrier. In his place we have Kelly, who's mostly holding his own on inline blocks but nowhere near as effective at controlling a 2nd level defender. We now have Molk in place of Kelce, so another drop off as far as effectiveness at 2nd level blocks there. Molk's real problems are in pass protection.
The Inside Zone plays are built on two combination blocks inside, the trick is to have two combo blocks using two players each to get control of a DL, then one man passing off and getting to the 2nd level to control a LB. Aside from the talent question that takes time to build up the understanding between guys of who leaves that double team and when. Before Kelce's injury the only two guys on the line who'd played beside each other last year were him and Heremanns, now there's nobody left who's built up that understanding with the player beside him.
Not sure if I'm over analysing, I'll have to take a better look but I think teams might be using some different fronts that make it harder to make those combo blocks work as well.
The Inside Zone was where the yards were last year, they didn't consistently run outside all that well.
Getting Tobin in for Gardner, then Johnson in for Kelly over the next couple of weeks should help, but it will probably still be tough work for a while.
The read option with the QB run I think is a novelty that is kind of passing as defenses now understand it and it comes back to being something that will pop up here and there and work at times but not much more than that. I'm quite interested to see how we defend it this week actually. Overall I've seen quite a bit of teams using the scrape exchange technique against us which makes it hard to leave that unblocked defender as he now doesn't have contain responsibility and is free to crash inside after the ball carrier. If the QB does pull the ball then he's picked up by the LB who has taken over the contain role. I think that development is what led to the Casey block on the split zone plays where Casey crosses the formation and takes the guy crashing inside.
It does mean it's more difficult now to get a numbers advantage by leaving a DL unblocked but it does have the effect of taking a LB in the opposite direction to the play. With our offense I think things have mostly shifted to run/pass option rather than run/run option. I would love to see a read option with Sproles and McCoy crossing in opposite directions though, and maybe a pop pass option off that.
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Awful Waffle
Footballguy
Seeing Cousins play this bad really shows how bad the Eagles D was on Sunday. Hope they can turn it around.
jon007
Footballguy
Naw man WAS was spent after the Eagles matchup. Even TB would have scored at least 4 TD's tonight.
CentralPA
Footballguy
That's the difference getting pressure on the QB can make. Cousins hasn't felt comfortable all night against the Giants because he's getting hit and pressured. He didn't have to worry about that very much against the Eagles. Birds need to start getting some pressure.
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interesting...McNabb quotes are hilarious
https://twitter.com/picsmixed/status/514762196757528576/photo/1
https://twitter.com/picsmixed/status/514762196757528576/photo/1
CentralPA
Footballguy
Bigboy10182000
Footballguy
I said coming into the season that the Niners were either going to finish 11-5 or 5-11. Pretty sure this is the week we figure out which it is.
Insein
Footballguy
I think the Cary Williams complaining could be a good motivator for the defense. He's running his mouth so he knows he has to back it up this week with his play. The rest of the guys should step it up too. I can see the Eagles pulling away for a win in the 4th quarter.
35-27
35-27
unckeyherb
Footballguy
certainly one of two possibilities. My heart tells me the Birds prove they are who many of us think they are, Bille Davis gets the defesne rolling and they win a close one. My gut tells me this is a very tough road-matchup against a very good team with their back against the wall. My Brain tells me that not having Aldon Smith and NaVorro Bowman is a very lucky draw for the Birds offense. Not sure about the status of Vernon, but all said and done, I think the birds walk away 4-0 and the Super Bowl calls start all over the Delaware Valley.
CentralPA
Footballguy
I hope you're right. The Niners are an enigma but that team is at a crossroads. They need to win this game and I think they do. The Eagles will be just fine though.
jon007
Footballguy
I think we go in and get a win straight up. It seems like we are waiting for Reid let down but this team is completely different. Very tough venue but I don't see the 49ers keeping pace in the 2nd half. We seem to adjust very well during the games. The only team currently that is adjusting better is the Bengals. The thing that gets me is that the Eagles still haven't peaked and have many areas to improve on yet we are 3-0. Williams need to suck it up.
Pip's Invitation
Footballguy
The pass rush is pathetic, and that's the root of the issues with the pass D. Cole and Barwin are not having good years and first rounder Marcus Smith has not shown much this far, so I don't expect this to change overnight. They need Kendricks to return ASAP because the backup LBs are turrible.
I would never start them in fantasy. Even casting aside their own problems, they are on the field a lot because of how the offense is run. That means they will always be among the worst in yards allowed, and maybe points allowed too.
I would never start them in fantasy. Even casting aside their own problems, they are on the field a lot because of how the offense is run. That means they will always be among the worst in yards allowed, and maybe points allowed too.
ImTheScientist
Footballguy
Just picked up the eagles kicker..... he's #1 in scoring thus far.
Whats his range like? Does he have a big leg?
Whats his range like? Does he have a big leg?
unckeyherb
Footballguy
Has hit 3 50+ yarders and is in the top 3-4 in touch backs. With the exception of a missed 35 yarder, which I attribute to rookie nerves, he's been dead straight on all of his attempts. A couple of the 50 yarders would have made it from 60+ easily.
