The Eagles came into the game with a plan to get the ball downfield to DeSean Jackson and Jeremy Maclin against the Raiders man-to-man coverages.
Oakland changed the way they were playing defense in anticipation of the Eagles trying to burn them deep with their speedsters.
This was not a hard adjustment and it should have been anticipated.
The Raiders had been scorched the last few weeks by teams throwing the ball deep against them. The Eagles had scorched the Buccaneers by throwing the ball deep.
It shouldn’t have been a shock that the Raiders came out playing zone and blitzing to get pressure on Donovan McNabb.
The Birds coaches and McNabb are experienced enough to make the adjustments, immediately.
They continued taking seven step drops and trying to throw the ball deep to Jackson and Maclin. McNabb was being pressured and sacked but no adjustment was made.
They have the personnel to attack those deep zone coverages. You have to patient against those deep zone coverages by taking what the defense gives you.
This should have been a no brainer.
The Eagles have plenty of guys who are capable of making plays in the underneath area of the zone.
They should have scrapped all the downfield throwing and went exclusively to the intermediate and underneath stuff versus all the zones the Raiders were playing.
Brian Westbrook is a great receiver out of the backfield. Leonard Weaver can also make plays coming out of the backfield.
Slot man Jason Avant is very adept at finding seams in the zones and in the intermediate areas.
They have tight end Brent Celek is a great guy to go to versus zone coverages although he developed a case of the dropsies on Sunday. Backup tight end Alex Smith has some talent but he contributed a drop as well.
I’m offering my services to the Eagles.
I will stand on the sideline and go into the halftime meeting and tell them the adjustments they need to make based on the game plan they’re facing.
It’s not that hard. I think the problem occurs when somebody thinks their game plan is perfect against every defense and that’s just not the case.
