The Eagles offense will have a different look about it with Michael Vick as the signal caller, but they will still be running the same plays, which they ran with Kevin Kolb. You will notice subtle changes to what the Birds normally do offensively.
First of all, Vick is left-handed, so Marty Mornhinweg is more likely to roll him out to his left rather than to his right. You saw him do a lot of damage to the Packers when he rolled to his left because the threat of him throwing the ball stops defenders from coming up to get him.
If he were rolling to his right, it would take more of an effort from him to throw the ball because he would have get his left arm back and turn his body to throw the football. To throw while rolling to his left, it only requires a flick of the wrist.
We learned yesterday from what DeSean Jackson told Philly.com, that they Birds will simplify the offense this week for Vick.
“I think they’re just kind of keeping it a lot simpler,” Jackson said. “Just going out there and doing the base stuff, trying not to have it overly complex for him. Just do things that he’s comfortable with doing.”
I think this is the best thing that can happen to the Eagles offense. I thought they got away from the basics of their offense last week by using too many gimmicks. If you have superior personnel why not use it.
They should dare teams with mediocre defensive back to cover their receivers. Sometimes Reid and Mornhinweg out think themselves and create problems by being to complicated on offense. Each game they put in more than 100 pass plays.
Other than those minor changes the Eagles will be running the same offense, which means he’s got to execute this offense from the pocket. Andy Reid believes Vick can run this offense from the pocket.
You will see Vick make the short throws across the middle to tight end Brent Celek. He’ll attempt to throw the slant to either Jackson or Maclin.
On third downs and short, slot receiver Jason Avant will likely be one of the first options. You will see the screens to running backs LeSean McCoy and Mike Bell, as well as the check downs and wide routes to them.
As for the defensive game plan the Birds will be facing, there will probably be much less all-out blitzing than we saw last week from the packers.
Vick’s ability to leave the pocket and make things happen will probably force the Lions to reduce and simplify what blitzes they employ. It might cause them to use a joker to keep an eye on Vick in passing situations and that will give them one less player to rush or one less player to cover the Eagles receivers.
The Lions will likely show their hand the very first time the Eagles get in a nickel situation, so when you’re watching the game count the number of defensive linemen in the game. Locate how many guys are in three point stances with a hand down on the ground.
When the ball is snapped notice if they’re a player behind the defensive line doing nothing but mirroring Vick as he drops in the pocket. Vick, Reid and Mornhinweg will be looking at the same thing, so they’ll have a better idea of the Lions game plan.
That’s what they should have done to start the Season,(Keep things Simple I belive is the phrase..)
WHy AR/MM wanted to rotate QB’s and run Gadget plays in the 1st 2-3 Series was assanine and
I believe had a negative impact to the entire Offense whop appeared to have no confidence at the
start of the PAcker game… I will never understand why Coach Ar/MM don’t have enough trust in their
players and talent level to run regluar plays instead of all this Gadget/High School stuff & trying to
“Outsmart” the other team. Line-up, Man on Man, and take no prisoners would be the approach I would like to see and then we may see this big O/Line actually develop some confidecse and be able to do something and sustain some momentum…
Defensivley,
the Eagles need to bring pressure on their Start S Hill who is the typical pocket,rhthym passer..
If the simply drop back in coverage and allow him to sit in the pocket, he will find his weapons
WR C Johnson is one of the best,biggets and strongest WR in the NFL and is a match-up nightmare for any team, but the key to the Lions offense is their TE (Sheffler and Pettigrew) who work the middle of the field as well as any TE Tandems in the league.. Also watch for RB J Best coming out of the backfield for screeens,wheelhouse routes and delayed draws-plays and don’t fall a sleep on other WR N Burleson who still runs the deep,fly route as anyone…
This game is going to be close and come down to the end on who can better execute in the Red Zone, the team that does will win
i agree paul, plain and simple d should pin their ears back and get after Hill. and Theo, keep it simple, get the ball into your playmakers hands and rely on the talent you have. forget all the gadget plays, that is what inferior talented teams rely on. go eagles
Paul you are so correct. This whole organization thinks they are smarter than the rest of the league. They continue to do bonehead things to prove the point. When was the last time a free agent that was signed “hurt” actually came in and did anything productive for us. How many times do we go into a season with a glaring hole that the average fan can see but the FO fails to address. This years draft was a prime example of the ignorance. You are starting a young unproven QB day 1. While I think Graham will be a good DE. Why wouldn’t you solidify your OL with Pouncey? Day 1 starter. Banking on another hurt Andrews brother was stupid. Sorry to ramble but this management team has been horrible. I’m sorry but 5 covered up a lot of holes. Now a lot of people will be exposed for the frauds that they truly are. Honestly I hope I’m wrong.
They should have simplified it for Kolb as well. There’s no way in hell it would have been feasible to expect Kolb to be able to run the offense in all it’s depth at the same level McNabb did. I don’t care how smart he may have been in the film room or whatever, it’s an entirely different thing when you’re out there having to do it in real games. Once again, this is coaching. They put Kolb out there in a very difficult spot having to play behind a suspect line and they didn’t keep the game simple enough. When he comes back, they better keep it simple as well.
And some people wonder why a lot of people want Reid gone. With all the things he does well, he does a lot of things dumb. There is something every year that this coach does that overrides everything he does well.
If the Simple O works for Vick I would think they would go back to that for Kolb once he returns for either Jax of Wash.
*Scorp..it’s the 1 step forward 2 steps back Offense…
Well one thing you won’t see Kafka coming in to run the Wildcat
And if they keep it simple and the they lose then the old line of “They are too predictable ” starts
30 year old pro, former All-Pro, 2nd year with the team, WTF do they need to simplify things? If what G means is reducing the QB rotation, I strongly agree with Paul Man that the rotating QB (at least the way it was done this year) disrupts continuity, and was more bad than good. But I wonder if that is the kind of simplification that G was talking about? I mean Vick scored 20 on the Wonderlic test which was significantly better than Mc(whatever)’s 14… Not that this is an all-encompassing measure, but come on I can’t see why they would need to simplify the offense for Vick.
To BJ,
I think G may have meant No “Dog-leg Left” or Dog-leg-Right” formations for obvious reasons,
But I will let G speak,write for himself…
i hope vick throws for 350yards 4 tds and rush for 80 yrds. to show andy reid that he is better than kevin kolb and that “I” michael vick can still play football!!!! and i am better than your selection “ANDY REID”! face it we will not with “meth face!” kevin kolb! he always looks high!!! Vick is the guy because he plays 2 win and got damnit thats what i want this team 2 do is win!!!! V>IK<
VICTORY*INSTEAD*CONFIDENT*IN KOLB!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! GET andy reid outta here so he can do a smokey the bear commercial or something!!!!!
NJ, because the offense, like most if not all offenses in the nfl, is built for a pocket passer. Vick has yet to show anyone at anytime that he can be an effective pocket passer.
That’s funny PM…
Thnx Beigingjake..
I am glad to hear that someone enjoys a little humor once in a while…
The roll outs really didn’t work well in my opinion, because the offensive line couldn’t hold the line long enough for him to get a good look at the field after the roll out. He was much more successful out of “The Gun” and with 5 and 7 step drops. Usually when he was rolling out he ended up having to scramble because when he got to his spot there was no time to re-set his feet with a LB or DE in his face. I wouldn’t mind them simplifying it if I actually trusted that they could come up with a solid plan. Hopefully , Vick is in a place where he’s fine with audibling into whatever play he thinks is going to work if things don’t start well.
The only plus about this, now that I think about it, is not the simplifying but the QB roll out against the Lions could be a good thing since it seems that their strength is in the middle and not out at the perimeter actually so that could help.
They can simplify the offense all they want…that Offensive line is bad and Vick will be running for his life all day.
Mc Coy also needs to learn how to pick up the blitz better and losing Jamal Jackson really hurt them.
That is why Vick works better in this offense because he exhausts a defense when he is running around trying to avoid the free-for-all D- lineman and linebackers who are in his face as soon as the ball is snapped.
Once Detroit’s Defense is dead tired ,then the line will look good…lol
How do you think Kolb got creamed last week? From good blocking?
All the skill players in the world mean nothing if your line cannot block anyone..or you can hold like Jason Peter’s did last week and have another record day of penalties.