You’ve got to give Giants credit for putting together a great game plan to attack the Eagles defense. He attacked the strategy of the Eagles defense and he attacked the personnel of the defense.
Eagles rookie defensive coordinator Juan Castillo was taken to school by veteran Giants offensive coordinator Kevin Gilbride. I can’t be furious at Castillo because he’s learning. He had been coaching the Eagles offensive line for more than a decade here in Philadelphia, now he’s taken over the Eagles defense and he’s learning on the job.
Calling defensive fronts and coverages, along with blitzes isn’t an easy thing to do. Most of the coaches who are doing it have been prepared for it through years of preparation.
From the start Gilbride knew where to attack Castillo and the Eagles.
On the first drive of the game, he had second-year wide receiver Victor Cruz open deep behind Asante Samuel and Jarrad Page, but Eli Manning missed him.
You run double moves on Samuel because he’s very good at jumping routes, so you show him a curl route, let him bite on it and then you take off deep. Cruz got behind the safety Page because he runs like his feet are in cement always works.
Last week, Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie had to run around the slow-footed Page to catch the Falcons Michael 
Turner on his 61-yard run.
On the second drive of the game, when the Giants offense got to the Eagles 40-yard line, they went after rookie linebacker Casey Matthews. They lined up Brandon Jacobs at halfback and sent him out on a route.
There was a reason that Jacobs was the guy to run this route. Gilbride didn’t use Ahmad Bradshaw, who is a much better receiver than Jacobs, on this route because he didn’t want the Eagles to give the linebacker any help.
They lined up everybody on the right side and had the one wide receiver on the left side go to the ride on the snap of the ball. They wanted to get Jacobs matched with Matthews one-on-one. It was like taking candy from a baby when Matthews took a step forward with his eyes on Manning.
Jacobs caught the ball in stride and went into the end zone untouched.
The next time the Giants got the ball, they were on their own 26-yard line with a 3rd down and three. Gilbride knew Castillo was going to blitz and he was waiting on it.
He had Cruz run a stop route outside at about eight yards down field. The Giants knew Eagles safety Kurt Coleman would have to come over and Cruz with the nickel back blitzing. They had the other wide receiver run an inside route directly at Coleman to make sure he couldn’t get over there in time.
Cruz caught the football and broke Coleman’s tackle, then he eluded Nmandi Asomugha, who then collided with Coleman and Cruz outran the rest of the Giants to the end zone for a 74-yard touchdown.
It was still the first quarter and the Giants had put up 14 points with two big plays that were brilliantly designed by New York’s offensive coordinator.
The third touchdown pass for the Giants was a display of the confidence that Manning has gained in Cruz. He 
threw the ball up from grabs with Asomugha and Page locked up on him man-to-man.
Asomugha showed while he has so few interceptions. He didn’t turn and play the ball despite having all the time in the world to do so. Cruz showed surprising strength as he went and took the ball from both of the defenders.
Asomugha had a terrible day because he was beaten by Hakeem Nicks on a post route, but Manning missed him because of pass rush pressure from Phillip Hunt.
On the final score of the day for the Giants, Manning dropped in the pocket to lure the Eagles pass rush to him, then he dumped the ball to Bradshaw who went untouched into the end zone. The Eagles swallowed
The pass play, which Gilbride called on the fourth down to tight end Travis Beckum was intended to be run against Matthews, but rookie linebacker Brian Rolle was in there instead. Beckum tripped and fell short of the first down marker, and was touched down by Rolle.
man, i bet buddy ryan threw a haymaker at the tv in disgust of reid and castillo, linebackers dont matter, defensive coordinators dont matter, “learning on the job”, how sad but true, you would think we are talking about a second-rate jv high school coach being drafted out of gym class to coach the defense, “learning on the job”, complete disgrace
The mere fact that Andy does not value the LB position should get him fired… The LB position is very important as are the safety position. Why is it now, what year 3 that we have not been able to replace Brian Dawkins. I watched Q lay the wood on some people on Monday night last week. Why is he gone?? I’m sick of this Eagles imaginary age limit. These guys are professionals and they know how to take care of their bodies. And football is a thinking man sport too, you lose a step, you make up for it in positioning. What the heck is going on here? Is it too early to panic…yes, but!!! let’s put the best players on the field. Casey Matthews is not one of them. He is NOT CLAY! Feed McCoy, feed McCoy and feed McCoy for the next 3 weeks. Playaction off of it, and you BETTER start Vince Young, I don’t care if he knows 5 plays. Run the 5…
How about the Draft…Watkins can’t even get on the field when a lineman gets hurt. Jarrett I don’t think has suited up this year, and neither has Marsh. You call that successful!! Watkins is the same age as the guy starting at RG right now. Forget trying to draft choir boys and gets some edgier athletic players out here, and start at LB. Ok I’m done for the day.
“Eagles rookie defensive coordinator Juan Castillo was taken to school by veteran Giants offensive coordinator Kevin Gilbride. I can’t be furious at Castillo because he’s learning. He had been coaching the Eagles offensive line for more than a decade here in Philadelphia, now he’s taken over the Eagles defense and he’s learning on the job. ”
I can be furious at Castillo. Because the fact that he was a offensive line coach with no experience, means he was not qualified to get the job in the first place.
That’s like me agreeing to and then taking your money to build you a house and I don’t even have a contractor’s license. It’s fraud on the Bernie Madoff level. And the buck stops with the FAT MAN.
Learning on the job in a year you are talking about being “ALL-IN” is not the way to go to the Superbowl.
When McDermott was Coordinator, Chaney Excelled, and Fokou was average. Now they are suddenly garbage?
No, the scheme is garbage, and Matthews is garbage.
With the talent at Cornerback and the speed of this defense, they are better suited to run the 46 defense. This wide tackle crap is inviting you to run and that is exactly what these undersized players can’t handle.
Now we lost Vick and Desean Jackson throws the defense under the bus. He’s a real winner. Good luck with getting a pay raise. I am changing your name from “boney James” to the “Invisable man”.
Losing to the Giants in your home opener. Losing at home to Minnesota and Greenbay at the end of last year.
Way to give the fan’s their money’s worth.
It’s on you Jeffrie Lurie.
ChuckRob, in what universe does the Reidtard come across as a “thinking man” on game day. The past twelve seasons have proven that the teams he has built had a knack for winning regardless of his mistakes on the sidelines, except when a Super Bowl was on the line. The biggest obstacle this Franchise has is an Owner who believes profits trump Championships and the Reidtard has been great for the bottom line.
Kachtice… thinking man was in regards to as players get older like Dawkins,,,and use their knowledge of the game to make up for losing a step or two. As for Reid and Lurie, you are dead on. They are joined at the hip, and this franchise is turning high profits.This sucks!!!
Did anyone notice how D-Jax gave up on his route on the final Int, not that it mattered, but it appears he could have ran harder and leaped up to at least deflect an Int instead of watching the Defender catch it… Just horrible this team is… a bunch of wussies with little or no heart…
Come on let’s go be Bills fans ….Who’s wit me …LOL….
Unfortunately this Franchise is plagued by enough homers “with blinders on” to ensure the Patriots fan sellouts every season regardless of how bad the Reidtard squanders opportunity for a Super Bowl win. Literally the only chance we have is if an “act of god” steps in and gives us one. Typical Reidtard season with typical debate after a game, so goes the life of an EAGLES FAN.
Please … Kevin Gilbride’s finest moment in the NFL was when Buddy Ryan punched him in the mouth. Any IDIOT could have exploited the ridiculous holes Reid left in this team coming into the season. Yeah, let’s take a guy who failed miserably at being a MIKE and move him to the WILL! Sure, he’s never played there before and he sucked at MIKE but he’s SURE to succeed there, right?? And even if he doesn’t, I’m sure no one will notice him. They’ll just look in the MIKE spot and see someone else and figure we benched him!
DUH! Reid is an imbecile. This team will NEVER win anything meaningful with him at the helm.
They are in the wrong play call on defence and offence all the time. It is just bad to watch that much talent get beat. The coaches are so bad it’s scary. I can call better plays from my house. They can take the wide 9 and Casey Matthews and put them back wherever they found them.
Casey Matthews is just another in a long line of Eagles players dating back to Doug Pedersen that everyone except the head coach knows can’t play. AR is just so darn stubborn that he flat-out refuses to cut his losses with these stiffs he drafts that just aren’t good enough.
Let me predict Casey Matthews career trajectory right now … Starts at MIKE, gets demoted to starting WILL. In a week or two he’ll go to splitting time with Akeem Jordan at WILL. They’ll bring him in on passing downs or something. Next season he’ll be a full-time pine rider except on rare occasions when they use him on certain down and distance situations. And then, three years removed or so from when they drafted him Reid will finally quietly cut him in the hopes that no one remembers they once touted him as the second coming of Ray Lewis.
not to beat up on Reid, but think of some of our middle LBs from the reid years…
Barry Gardner
An old Levon Kirkland
Mark Simenou
Stewart Bradley – the closest thing to a good MLB reid ever picked
Casey Matthews
He’s is fortunate he was able to keep going back to Jeremiah Trotter all those years…
some of the other lbs were so bad, ive blocked out their names from memory… matt mccoy?
its really pathetic what he has done with lbs… philadelphia used to have the rep as a team that fielded good/great linebackers… Our defense has always been feared even when the rest of the wasnt soo good..
Seems like Jim Johnson was more important than Reid realized
Oh man, Mark Simoneau is another PERFECT example of what I referenced above! Go back and look at that dude’s career as an Eagle and tell me it doesn’t roadmap almost exactly to what I said.
I forgot about that stiff, which is EXACTLY what Reid wants. And you know what? I think Matt McCoy fits that mold too. Friggin’ Reid …
The Eagles coaching and player evaluation methods are so deficient that they border on incompetence. How do you interview 20+ experienced defensive coordinators and wind up choosing a cheerleader with no experience except that his son plays defense, he talked to Jim Johnson often, and he played linebacker during the Spanish American War. How do you draft an unskilled rookie and start him at MLB when you already have a guy from last year. All thos 25+ linebackers who came and went and contributed to our loosing NFC championship games was not a learning experiense for Reid and Company, just the fans learned from this.
No former assistants will openly critize Reid for this hire and neither will any opposing coach. They will just privately salivate for their opportunity to match wits with Cheerleader Juan.
You guys are fogetting about the Bronco’s leading tackler
That’s right, MLB Joe Mays who was probably the most natural MLB the Eagles have had in the last 5 Seasons and they traded him to the Broncp’s for chump change…