There’s no serious debate concerning where a team should attack the Eagles defense. You go after the Birds linebackers and their safeties. You throw the ball to your tight ends and your running backs because that’s who the linebackers and safeties have to cover.
Don’t throw the ball to your wide receivers regardless of who they are or how good they are because the Birds have Asante Samuel, Nmandi Asomugha and Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie covering them.
Teams know if they get the Eagles safeties in coverage, they have a lot better chance to have success by going after the safeties.
You attack the Eagles run defense by getting their linebackers isolated. You get a big offensive lineman in the face of the linebackers and you have the Birds beaten. You can get to the middle linebacker with a tackle coming down on him because the linebackers are slow in reading the blocking schemes and attacking the play. They have trouble getting off of blocks.
Isn’t it amazing the Philadelphia Eagles could go out and outspend everybody in free agency and add numerous Pro Bowlers to their offense and defense, then find out that their offense still has trouble getting the ball into the end zone when they get into the red zone and their defense has trouble stopping anybody from getting into the end zone when the opposing offense gets in the red zone.
The Atlanta Falcons reached the red zone five times and scored a touchdown on each of those trips. Here you have an Eagles defense that is stocked with talent but can’t get the job done with the game on the line.
The Philadelphia Eagles were in the red zone in the first half with a chance to stick the dagger in the Falcons. Instead of they run a trap play with Jason Peters trapping the nose tackle. The nose tackle got penetration, hit Michael Vick in the back and forced a fumble.
Ray Edwards returned the ball to deep in Eagles territory and unfortunately DeSean Jackson hurt his wrist making the tackle. The Falcons went into score after the Eagles blew an opportunity to give themselves a comfortable lead.
Juan is not a defensive coordinator that is going to take you to a Superbowl.
In fact. He’s not a defensive coordinator at all. He just plays one on TV.
That decision alone by Andy Reid should get him FIRED at the end of this season when the Eagles exit the playoffs.
That wide tackle crap is the dumbest thing since the Prevent Defense. That does nothing but prevent you from holding a lead.
The hard headed decision the keep those linebackers on the field…Is inexcusable. What do you see??? There is no big upside. They stink.
That Defensive Tackle from GB is a Beast. I love that guy. Once and for all, it shows how pitiful All-Bunk Bunkley and No Push Patterson were. 2 number one draft picks.
Sorry to see Vick get hurt. It was a fun game up until that point. But we all knew it was coming. One way or another.
Man Peters has gotten better. I bow down to Howard Mudd. He did something right with that guy. Now turn that fireman into a football player and the circle will be comeplete.
When Andy Reid is 80 years old, he is going to be sitting in is rocking chair out on the porch of his Utah home, and he’s going to start laughing so hard, his wife is going to rush outside to see whats wrong. Then he’s going tell her, he was just thinking of the time he walked into Jerry Luries office and told him he named a sorry offensive line coach as his defensive coordinator.
Then he’s just going to keep on laughing. Reminising how he put one over on the media and fans he never cared for.
That FAT smug …..
Gary, the fact that you bring up the Eagles bringing in all this talent on defense and still having an awful redzone defense leads me to believe it’s the coaching; don’t you think? How can they not stop anyone in the redzone?
To give credit where credit is due, I’ve actually never been more impressed with a defense who gave up 35 points. I think at least 14 of those points were off turnovers. Vick has to protect the ball better. We should have easily won that game by 2 TDs.
Their red zone offense & defense still blows! Castillo as a DF Coordinater, is the biggest joke & slap in the face, that square peg in round Andy has ever done. The LB’s & Safeties are a black hole & the O-Line are still a bunch of matadors! He added surplus players in Brown, Young & Smith, that they did not need & ignored adding upgrades in the off season to their priority, dire needs, in LB, Safety & O-Line. That’s alright, they drafted the 26 year old fireman in the 1st round, to save the O-Line. OOPS!!! Another wasted draft! Go ahead Rosebud, keep trading back, because quantity is better than quality, right!!!??? DISGUSTING, DISGRACEFULL & UNACCEPTABLE!!!
I gotta say, I don’t like it when our defense is going to a tough series and Juan is there talking to Andy like he’s trying to explain what’s going wrong. Of course, we don’t know what he’s saying but I just don’t like it. Never seen a D coordinator look like that while he defense is getting chumped. Usually, they just stay on their side and the offensive coach stays on his side. Probably just Juan’s way of doing things which may be perfectly fine but it just looks weird to me. Look like you know what you are doing instead of explaining what’s going on WHILE THE GAME IS STILL BEING PLAYED.
I had said several times in the off-season that I felt it was a priority to 1) keep Bradley and 2) get another FA LB to play the WILL. I liked Manny Lawson and Rocky McIntosh. What did they do? They let Bradley walk and did not go after any FA LBs. How can they think Moise Fokou is a good enoguh football player to start in this league? He is awful! Jamar Chainey? Extremely over valued based on playing well in two games. Where was he when GB’s third string running back was doing an Adrian Peterson immitation in the playoffs with a mediocre O line in front of him? I didn’t see Chaney stopping anything. And Casey Mathews is clearly the runt of the litter. He is too small and slow to be a professional football player. Bloodlines don’t matter a lot of times especially when you are getting the runt of the litter.
Now we did invest in three corners. And this is why Castillo is a bum as a D coordinator just like he was a bum as O line coach. Why is Nnamdi not covering the HOF TE that was clearly killing us all night? Samuel and DRC could cover the WRs. Its not because they had three WRs on the field. They needed to be in nickel with Nnamdi on the TE. But Castillo does not make the adjustment and the guy just keeps burning them all night. Did they need to have three LBs on the field to stop the run?? Because since those LBs are all a waste of DNA, even more reason to be in nickel and take away the TE. Terrible coaching. And way to challenge that interception that Hayden scooped off the ground Andy! Heads up coaching as usual!!
10-6 now at best because now we will have to play 2-3 games with our third string QB. And guess what? Bufffalo and Washington don’t look like gimmes anymore do they?? This little stretch could knock us right out of the playoffs. Since we have already compromised our record to the point we will not have a legit chance in the playoffs, I hope we just go 8-8 and Andy gets fired. We will never win a title with this guy as our coach and we all know that in our hearts. He just can’t think on his feet and doesn’t know how to find good assistants consistently.
BSM, I agree with a lot of what you’re saying. Maybe not the tone but the content LOL. I think the issue with the LBs is that there may not be a better alternative and that’s the part that sucks. Andy went too many years not placing enough emphasis on the position. Always cared more about the Line and secondary (except safety) and just plug average joes into the LB core. The belief and what many FO apologist will say that is the Dline is great then the LBs will be just fine. The issue with that thinking in that the Dline cannot be great every down and when you play against great offensive lineman then it’s a set of evenly matched skills. The Eagles can beat 24 of 31 teams in the playoffs, no question. But it’s the other 7 that are good enough to exploit all the problem areas that have been there for the last couple years.
JBird, U R 100% right!
The defense was put in a bad position by our offense. The 2 fumbles Vick had really killed us. 31 points should have been able to win this game….even if Vick doens’t get hurt we probably still win the game. The 61 yard run on 1st and 17 killed us. Outside of that we held a top tier RB to less than 3 yards per carry. Matt Ryan was the unfortuante benefactor of great field position and took advantage of our inability to cover a quality TE, that was showcased when he had something like 80 yards passing and 3 TD’s.
I would like to see Cromartie cover some TE’s in the future. He’s our tallest DB and could have more success. Our safties aren’t cutting it in pass coverage.
Eagle Eye the Defense couldn’t make a play at the end of the game with the game on the line. They allowed two long TD drives and left the TE open all night. They failed us last night. The offense did their job. The D showed no heart when they needed to step up.
the defense blew it… they gave up 2 80 yard drives in a row…. unacceptable…
reality!
The Eagles have trouble on offense in the red zone because of the weakness of the interior part of our offensive line. The same as last year.
Down there you must be able to maul and do away with the fancy trickery which results in turnovers.
Defense is the same issue. We have not had good consistent red zone play every since Dawk went to Denver.
Our Safeties are lost in coverage and our Middle linebacker is lost. You can not have a good red zone defense if you’re weak up the middle on the 2nd and 3rd levels.
Good Teams don’t need recievers to beat us if the middle is openly exploited.
Like I said before….our expensive book ends are obsolete if teams can maul us in the middle of the field and run at will at our middle linebacker.
Why are we giving Matthews all this latitude again?
If this was Akeem Jordan stinking up the joint in the middle, would he still be starting?
So they will keep Vick out damn near a month because they are so cautious with concussions now. He is 100% out for the Giants game. He is most likely out for the Niners game. I think we will beat the Niners no matter who the QB is. But they lose to the Giants with Kafka in there and they lose one between the Bills and Skins. So that makes us 3-3 at the bye. We will beat Dallas and probably Chicago and Arizona to get sucked back in at 6-3. We will then be back in SB hopeful mode after beating the Giants who actually suck with all these injuries but they can still run all over us enoguh to beat a third string QB this weekend. So then we are 7-3 and all fired up for New England. And we will get emotionally crushed when we find out we can still only win the easy ones and drop to 7-4. We bounce back with wins against Seattle and Miami to get to 9-4, but still can’t win the tough ones and lose to the Jets in a heart breaker to fall to 9-5. After losing on the road to Dallas, we have a do or die game with the Skins to finish the season. We eek it out and finish 10-6. Depending on how things shake out, we may get either the WC or 3 seed hosting either Dallas or Detroit in the first round. WC would have us play either Dallas or Arizona on the road. I think I would take road game against Arizona over the other options.
Oh and since the Saints won a SB now, we have only one more embarrassment to endure when Detroit wins one before us in the next few years.
If things really go horribly wrong, I would like to see if Jeff Fisher is interested. This team needs some toughness and he could bring that back to Philly.
dudes are panicking already…LMAO…the team is 1-1 ….
“Since we have already compromised our record to the point we will not have a legit chance in the playoffs, I hope we just go 8-8 and Andy gets fired.”
REALLY ALREADY !!
Turner gets 20 yards on his 1st 2 carries of the game and then 65 on that back breaker long run.. His other 16 carries yield about 20 yards..The Defense, similar to last week, with this constant “Wide 9” Defensive alignment is going to give up big runs with this Eagles LB Corp.. They should look to switch up the front on occassions and not line up so wide on obvious running downs (like 1st Down or when teams are backed up into their own end of the field)
I do think that DC Castillo has a ways to go …
Where was LB’s Rolle or Clayton who at least are better match-ups versus TE Gonzo where Chaney/Matthews/Fokou were obviously not.. and I still think they have to find a way to get all 3 CB’s (Asmo/SAmuel/DCR on the field together..)
I’ve been panicking since they announced casey matthews was our future and stew was a goner… what kind of move is that? laughable. i still think we’re good but it’s just an obvious retarded move. i guarantee jim johnson wouldn’t have stood for such idiocy.
Interior of offensive line Songs? Really? There were plenty of issues last night, but the o-line wasn’t one of them.
We’re not giving Matthews any lattitude….that being said, he wasn’t even on the field for a couple of Turner’s big runs. Including the last 2 in the 4th. The whole crew of LBs are pretty bad right now. I wouldn’t single any one in particular out.
I also wouldn’t put this all on the run D. Ryan did throw 4 tds.
Vick kept the Falcons in the game with his careless turnovers. Especially the fumble right after the Atl touchdown. Falcons should have been put away in this game by the end of the half….but were kept in it by the fumblemaster himself.
Result? Birds end up at end of 4th Q with a still alive desperate team playing for their season. At home. End pretty predictable at that point.
By the way, looking ahead, who do the college football and draft geeks like for us to draft at MLB in the first round next year??? I really can’t see us taking anyone but a LB in the first round next year. We don’t need QB/RB/WR/DE/CB. That leaves OL/DT/LB/S. They won’t draft a safety in the first round and I think they will rely on Watkins next year so would not draft an O lineman. The DTs are not a problem area per se, so it would have to be LB. And it will likely be a MLB. They do actually place some value on MLB. Where they really fail is with OLB. They just put whatever out there and have done so for a decade now.
Eagles should be 4-2 after their 6 games which is what I was thinking all summer long, no time to panic..Splitting their 1st games on the Road to go
1-1 is about what I expected..Now they have to play better at home (where they have lost their last 3 games in a row at the Linc and actually had a losing record there last year 4-5)
Gotta Luv It… Yeah! Really! We are in deep shit already. Do you think we are going to the SB at 10-6?? How do you suppose we end up with as bye now? We going to win these next couple games with a third string QB and a back up who still doesn’t know the offense since he hasn’t been able to practice? winning 11 games is now an extremely long shot because of the start we are going to end up with. And you know AR sucks as a head coach in many areas. I would like to see us go in a different direction after a decade of heart break.
Out a month? Where are you reading that?
Are you all that upset about a guy who has posted 33 of 60 for 429 4tds, 1 INT and 3 lost fumbles in 2 games?
In a league where guys like FItzpatrick, Hasselback, Newton are tossing up close to 400 a game……..
How come Vick “had to run” 11 times…but Kafka didn’t feel he had to run once?
Three turnovers and a poor punt gave the Falcons great field position for the first 3 TDs – yes, would have liked to see them held to FG attempts, but seriously – the LB was freaking hanging on Gonzalez as he makes a 1 hander going out the back of the end zone – why he will be in the HOF – but 154 total offense for 3 qtrs, against Atlanta, in Atlanta – 2 ints, 4 sacks and Ryan getting hammered all night – this defense has some serious potential.
and don’t tell me when we went up 31-21 you were not thinking we got this –
now – 2 80 yard drives – that blows
but really – you guys are such freaking drama queens – notice some of the teams that were great last week, sucked this week. Some of the teams that sucked last week did OK for themselves this week – yeah, notice that, that whole its 16 weeks thing – remeber last week you were all commenting on the Rams dropping passes – this week it was our turn.
The LBs – get off the LBs – they freaking destroyed the Falcons for 3 freakin quarters – Tnoy Ganzalez has been doing that to LBs in this league for years – you name the LB – he has been beating them – Urlacher, Lewis, Briggs – you name an LB in this league, I am sure Gonzalez has beaten them.
Yes, Ried should have challeneged the INT at the 50 –
songs – weakness in interior of line – did you watch the plays, even collinsworth commented on some of Mathias blocks – ZERO sacks – vick got hurt because he was looking downfiled as he got spun into Hermanns helmet – we had no problme moving the football – you all saw that –
Even in the 4rth Qtr with Kafka – we moved the football. The play calling actualyl became too conservative for a while.
Long way to go Gents – Eagles are traditionally slow starters, hate the fact they let this one go, they had them
BSM – did you watch the game – Bunkley isn’t here anymore, why do you care – Patterson played well last night
we’re fine, just get our 1st/2nd qbs healthy
then we shall proceed…
paulman…I know the Giants suck over all. But three things. 1) they could be 0-2 and we face another desperate team. 2) they hate us and wanted this game bad anyway. 3) even with all their injuries, they can still a) run the ball and b) rush the passer. That plays to our weaknesses. I will give you that the Niners suck but how do you see us winning 3 of next four given a tough game coming up and the fact that the Bills and Skins do not exactly look weak right now and we tend to mail it in before the bye. So we have a tough road game with the Skins who will be looking to prove themselves against us and we are out there in “mail it in” mode like we always are the week before the bye. We are 2-4 in last six games before the bye.
A couple of names to look at in next Years Draft at ILB/MLB that are rated to be 1st Round Selections (These 3 are ranked anywhere from 8th thru the 15th selection as of now)
LB Luke Kuechly from Boston College 6-3″ 240 lbs
LB Mantei Teo from Notre Dame 6-2″ 255 lbs
LB Vontaze Burfict from Arizona State 6-3″ 255lbs’
the one thing that made me mad was the Andy and his guys talking about how ‘they dont care’ if teams run the ball down our throats because this is a passing league… *SMH*
this may be a passing league, but you cant win in it if you cannot stop the run.. Andy should know better than to even take such an arrogant stance… I hope this last game changes his mind and he smartens up
Yo.. lol…how can you be panicking on week 2 of the season…?
Im not worried abt the final record because it’s only week 2…
10-6…SB..playoff bye…all of this is lost because we lost a game in week 2..1-1
3rd string QB was 7-9 in the money time with the cardinals blitzing like shyt…
If he has to start a game or 2 I think he can hold it down
since you predict so much….do you think we win that gane if #18 catches that 5 yd pass for a 1st down in the red zone..?
“I would like to see us go in a different direction after a decade of heart break.”
DULY NOTED
Navy…you make some excellent points. And I agree there is no reason to criticize the O line today. They played well. It was a freak accident. But I am concerned that they will keep Vick out quite a while because they did so with B west two years ago. He missed a month. And these next few games are not cream puffs. Young has not been able to practive with the hammy and is no more up to speed than he was three weeks ago as a result. I don’t think we can win more than two of next four games if Vick doesn’t play. And I’m not sure even if Vickk comes back for game four, we win three straight before the bye. I think Bills are over rated but Washington is semi-legit and they always give us problems. 10-6 is not going to get it done if the SB is what we are aiming for. We can’t beat the Saints and Packers on the road and that is what we will be facing if we are 10-6 again. These are my concerns. I felt we needed a bye to avoid playing both of those teams as opposed to just one.
paulman thanks. Kuechly looks too small and I want no parts of any ND defensive player. They have not worked out here.
Dvisional Games vs the Giants,Redskins,Cowboys are always going to be tough no matter what the Teams Records are.. The Giants will come to play next week as you stated, and will try to get that Eagle Monkey off their back, the Redskins are much improved and the Cowboys still have lots of offensive talent.
Bottom line is the NFL is a long season and it’s really a week to week Season where momentum, injuries on your team, injuries on opponents teams,weather conditions,bad calls,etc,etc.. To look 3-4 weeks or games down the road is a crap-shoot for many things change week to week.. Right now, the EAgles have to get Vick/D Jax heatlhy, tighten up this Defense and get ready for the Giants next week for there is no time for “coulda, shoulda, woulda” in the NFL..Eagles had a golden opportunity to start 2-0 with 2 Road wins versus NFC COnference teams which would have been an awesome start before starting their NFC Divisional games and any home games, but being that we are all Eagle Fans, we all know the Eagles never do anything the easy way, it will be a week to week struggle like the NFL and the Eagles always are and that’s not going to change…
Gotta Luv It…Maclin should have had the catch but other plays still would have had to be made and I don’t trust our play calling in the RZ. Good teams don’t give up two TDs in the fourth quarter. This is not a very good team right now and the defense really needs to take inventory of themselves after last night. I’m not saying they suck. They are just not a contender at this moment unless they really clean some things up.
JB – on Vick – I thought he just bit his tongue when it happened – that sounds silly but it hurts like a b####.
Rash1 – I don’t think anyone that watched that game last night would conclude the Falcons ‘ran the ball down our throat’ We got caught in that 61 yarder – the guards didn’t even block our Dts they just did a jailbreak on our LBs – similar to what we tried to do on the play Vick fumbeled in the Red Zone –
JBird – kets worry about beating whoever on the road when they are scheduled to be the team we play that week – it will save on the antacids –
NYG at home this week – let’s put this one behind us (and DAMN I thought when it was 31-21 and the Eagles were shuttting down the Falcons and Turner had about 50 yards rushing I was going to get a week of no posts about the LB) and the way we were moving hte ball I thought my 35-14 prediction would be close.
On to next week gents –
Shout out to Navy for going into #10 South Carolina and giving them hell – both my teams led at the start of the 4rth and couldn’t score or stop the other team – at least my dog still likes me
This was a tough game. And the problem with the Eagles has always been that they only win the easy ones. There are usually 10-12 easy ones on ones schedule any given season. This is how they make the playoffs. And this is how they fail to go beyond a certain level. Because when the going gets tough, Andy Reid folds. They do not beat elite teams. Sure they can beat 9-7 and 10-6 teams in the WC round or divisional round, but when they have to beat a 12-4 team in the championship game. they can’t do it.
Last night was a barometer to me. I knew it would be tough. I thought well if they can’t win we are probably looking at the same old Eagles. If they won. I thought it may be an indication that we had something going here. They lost so I am thinking they are the same old team that can only win the easy games but can’t stand up to the stiffer challenges.
Since 2000, the Eagles are 8-20 against teams that win more than eleven games. No one can say they beat elite teams. You usually have to beat an elite team once you get to a championship game.
I will say, the O-line didn’t play bad at all last night. They cannot dominate each play but last night they weren’t a big problem. The big problems were turnovers and the middle of our defense on the 2nd and 3rd levels. The encouraging thing is that even with that we still beat them if Vick doesn’t get hurt. The discouraging thing is that he is hurt and the defense still needs a lot of work.
J – Bird – I don’t disagree with anything you posted – but as I said – why don’t we worry about the team we play this week – or, If you choose to worry about every other team – worry double for me.
Scorp – O is averagin over 100+ per game rushing 30+ points per game, 400+ yards Offense – ZERO sacks last night.. I think our O line is doing a fine job and will only get better.
Our D and our LBs did fine for 3 qtrs last night – not sure where the wheels came off those last two drives. Would have liked to have done better on Red Zone D..
This reject saftey page from pats needs to go! Put Nate allen back in! Don’t tell me these linebackers will get better, trade that 2nd round pick and another late round pick and go get Lance briggs or another Big strong thick backer to get in there! Shit, if your all in really surprise us and bring back Brian Dawkins in a trade with broncos. His cap number will be 8mil next year and he will be released anyway. Last monday night he was leading tackler for broncos! Are we as fans panicking? Maybe, its only the second game but come on man! dirty stinking falcons 5 of 5 redzone, that’s not acceptable!
Safety play??? I saw Q Mikell make a lot of plays last night. Boy do we miss that in this defense. Our Safeties are average at best, and neither are playmakers.
Paulman, you’re the second person I’ve seen/”know” say that they want to get Vontaze from ASU. I wouldn’t mind it. I’ve seen the kid play and he’s a beast. The next Ray Lewis.
And I don’t usually make asinine statements like that.
our safeties are just glad being there.
Coleman I like but as a back up and special teams ace.
Jarrad Page should not be retired.
I’ll take Dawk at 50 years of age before these safeties.
I thought we were improving the safeties when Dawk was let go. They let the heart of this defense walk away,,,,you can’t replace heart!!!!
Coaches all around the league see our weakness once they get past that pass rush.
Washburn have earnted his money, but don’t expext Castillo to out coach the offensive minds in this league.
He have 3 good corner but didn’t put Asmo on Gonzalez the way JJ used Bobby Taylor against teams good tight ends.
That lost have Andy Reid written all over it ..so I’d rather lose and have these glaring holes magnified, than have a win patch holes that will be exposed in the playoffs.
When I seen no linebackers and one that did have a good season last year moved….I knew that would be a problem.
When I seen Old ass journyman Page starting over our 2nd round Safety Allen…I knew that would be a problem.
I’m now convinced that the only way this team will win it all once there’s exceptional players at every position to overcome the coaching and Andy’s game day coaching.
He’s a prepper..not a gamer.
He is very impressive at the College Level..
They really missed this years on Miss State’s KJ Wright who I think would have have been a great fit for this Wide-Nine Scheme
Songs –
What game did Bobby Taylor move from covering WRs to TEs? I don’t ever remember that happening – Taylor played for the Eagles from 95-03 and the Eagles had Carlos Emmons from 00-04 and Emmons was the best OLB I can remember at covering TEs And – if my facts are correct – the Eagles hired JJ in 99 and went 5-11 I am trying to figure out when JJ would move his starting CB (I think it was Vincent and Taylor with Harris as the 3rd CB – someone help me out)