The New York Giants have had great success against the Dallas Cowboys because they don’t rely so much on the deep ball. They run a lot of intermediate routes and that’s what the Cowboys have trouble with.
The Eagles have been employing DeSean Jackson to beat teams with his fastball (deep speed) but they’ve got to get him to start going to his off speed pitch.
The Cowboys have shown the Eagles and Jackson that they can handle his fastball. Terrence Newman and Mike Jenkins have proven that they can run fast enough to stay close to Jackson.
Every time he lines up they’re expecting him to be going deep for six. DeSean has to show them that he can throw an off speed pitch.
What I mean by an off speed pitch are intermediate routes. Instead of going down fifty yards on a bomb, go thirty yards and then come back to 25 on a comeback route. Twenty-five yards is a very good gain and a couple of them equals fifty yards.
There are numerous other intermediate routes he can run and all of them will work if he convinces them that he’s going deep by the way he comes off the ball.
The underneath routes are there. The Eagles have to take them. The same is true with Jeremy Maclin and Jason Avant.
I would have a problem if they let Kevin Curtis run some routes out of the slot position.
The Eagles have to be more patient and it will help them have success.
If they can connect on a few intermediate routes, it’ll stress the secondary and also make it harder for the Dallas defensive line to put pressure on Donovan McNabb because he’ll be getting rid of the ball earlier.
They could put together drive like their first one against the Denver Broncos. They didn’t score on a bomb but so what they got the touchdown on a Jackson crossing route.
In addition if they want to leave outside linebacker Bobby Carpenter man-to-man on Brent Celek, then they should go to him until the cow comes home.
