Staying at home will be the key for the Eagles defensive ends, linebackers, cornerbacks and safeties this week.
If rookie safety Nate Allen gets nosy on a run fake, Donovan McNabb will get the chance to throw a touchdown pass in Lincoln Financial Field in a Washington Redskins jersey.
I talked to Allen and he said defensive coordinator, Sean McDermott and fellow safety Quintin Mikell, had lectured him all week about not running up to early to help the Eagles defensive front stop the Redskins rushing attack.
McNabb is a very good ball handler and he’s hides the ball, so that once the safety discovers he didn’t hand it off, it’s too late to catch the Skins speedy wide receivers. We hope Allen can learn from being told, so he doesn’t have to experience it to find out.
Most of the time rookies hear what you say, but don’t take it with the same seriousness you tell them. Once they’re beat by the play you talked to them about, it’s easier for them to understand the next time you tell them something.
Do your job first and don’t get caught trying to do somebody else’s job?
Mike Shanahan and his son are running a lot of bootlegs with McNabb faking handoffs one way, then hanging onto the ball and going back the other way. He’s using his speed to get outside of the defensive end who is trying to keep him contained.
Once he gets outside, he has all day to deliver the football and is able to buy time for his receiver to get deep.
The Skins have some wide receivers in Santana Moss and Joey Galloway, who can get deep. McNabb is bootlegging one way and throwing the ball deep across the field to the far corner of the end zone.
The Eagles secondary must respect his arm strength and not take for granted that a play is over or he can’t get the ball to the receiver because of how deep the player is.
If they’re not open then he looks up tight end Chris Cooley, who will get open in the seams in between the zones.
Cooley is a smart receiver, who is very sneaky and crafty about getting open. He can use every trick in the book to get open.
Middle linebacker Stewart Bradley knows what to expect. “I think it’s coming down to execution and playing sound football, because they do a lot of misdirection stuff, a lot of boots, a lot of plays where they’re trying to take you out of position” Bradley said today. “And if you’re not playing sound football, you’re can really get burned. You’ve seen it, even in the games that they’ve ended up losing; they’ve gashed guys for a lot of yards with their boots and stuff.”
The Eagles can’t afford to let the Skins run the ball effectively against them. They must control Clinton Portis and not let him get going. If Washington were to get their running game going, it would also open up their play action passing.
Defensive tackle Mike Patterson believes they want to run the ball even though they threw it a lot in the last couple of games.
“There’s some things that they did, I just think it had to do with game situation” Patterson commented. “If they get comfortable, I’m sure they will be running the rock.”
As usual the front seven will have lot to do with how much success the secondary has against McNabb and his Redskins offense.
Play action works if the running game is going and the QB and running back sell the fake.
i agree with that. i would say we would be fine if the rams and spags held them in check to 13 pts.
with that said, this is not a typical football game. mixed emotions, rivalries, friendships, vengeance, etc.
common sense out the window, “its going to be a dog fight” i jus hope vick doesnt use that same cliche.
We’ll be fine with the safeties we just have to put pressure on donnavan because we all know as eagle fans donnavan cant handle pressure to well!!! The guy who use to kill us with the run game from the redskins was ladell betts and he’s no longer there!! We contain clinton portis and keep cooley in check we should be fine becuase our corners have handle wr’s pretty well this year!! Its just the Rb’s and Te’s who just seem to get BS against us and keep the score close….. I see us winning 27-13 with vick having a solid game passing one and rushing one in…. But we stop the run and make mcnabb throw 40-50 times he’s going to turn the ball over…. Mcnabb and David Garrard are sorta the same Qb’s there big, strong, and athletic so we can prepare for the same style of defensive pressure we displayed last week!!!!
But you know “OLD FALSE TEETH” “BIG CHOMPERS” Shannahan is real good on calling bootleg passing plays!! If we keep one of our ends at home to not bite off the play action pass we should be fine! GO EAGLES and another sunday night I sleep well!!! ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!!!!!
“Skins speedy wide receivers” is a bit of a stretch
53-27 redskins.
Mcnabb throws for 300 yards and Portis runs for 150. Vick throws 2 picks and Kolb starts next week.
vr: Lay off the Jolt!
I think Mikell and Allen are going to be fine this week. We just need the d-line to get relentless pressure. Even if they don’t get sacks, be right there in McNabb’s face all freaking day long and we’ll do fine. And get their arms up. When McNabb was with the Eagles we saw d-line players knock balls down all the time (or at least seemed like it). I like our defense to do better against the Washington offense than the Washington defense will do against our offense. I know McNabb protects the ball well in general, but I think we can get some turnovers this game. No matter what he says, he’s going to be prone to forcing some things and trying to make too much happen in this game. I hope our defense goes all out with the attitude that Washington isn’t going to score on us at all.
Iggles what? nobody belived me even schiller when I said kolb wont be our QB up untill the 3rd game. Now it came sooner than I thought but it came. Eagles will get blown out this game trust me.
vricchinni, your a laughable idiot. But then again , that’s what you have to be going for right? C’Mon Man! The Iggles are gonna roll them brutha! By the way, your fantasy team sucks. I rolled you weeked two.
I already see on this web site that there dosen’t see, to be any mature football conversation. ( their probably rasing children
J mac we will see. wow you won week 2 yay it happens. Want a cookie?