Before I move on to another subject, I want to emphasize something that I’ve observed about the Eagles quarterbacks and wide receivers. This will be important information if and when Kevin Kolb ever takes over as the starting quarterback with DeSean Jackson and Jeremy Maclin as the starting wide receivers.
This team will suffer severely if that happens. Jackson and Maclin are at their best when they’re making plays deep.
They’re not nearly as good in the classic west coast offense, when they’re asked to catch short passes and take a pounding from a tough defense. A defense can beat them up and intimidate them, when they’re catching a lot of short passes. We saw this happen during the preseason.
In the game versus the Jags, notice all the time when they failed to catch the ball in traffic. One time Jackson ran into Brent Celek and got up slow. Maclin had two or three balls hit off his hands. Both Jackson and Maclin will hear footsteps if you ask them to catch the ball in traffic.
Notice how this offense has become the same offense that they ran with Donovan McNabb. It’s a big play offense with a heavy emphasis on the deep ball. Kolb can get the ball deep, but he’s got to have his feet set and must be able to step into each deep throw to get the ball down there.
His arm isn’t nearly as strong as McNabb and Vick, so having him in there eliminates some of the deep threat with Jackson and Maclin. Both Vick and McNabb can get the ball deep on the run, as well as falling back or they can do it with all arm without using their legs.
If you’re going to make deep throws behind this line, you’re not going to be able to step into the throw all the time and you must be willing as a quarterback to take a pounding. You have to hold the ball longer to make the deep throws. Reid saw that Kolb was unwilling to hold the ball, stand in the pocket behind a questionable line and get hit. Say what you want about McNabb and Vick, they’re both tough quarterbacks, who can take a pounding and still play good football.
I saw Kolb get spooked by a few hits, so did his teammates and so did Andy Reid. Reid is taking a lot of heat that Kolb should be taking. Big Red is covering for Kolb in the same way he’s covered for his players in the past. If he really believed in Kolb don’t you think he would be in the game. Let me repeat that. If he really believed in Kolb don’t you think he would be in the game.
Imagine if Reid came out and told the way he really feels about Kolb, it would stick to Kolb. If he talked about how afraid Kolb has been in the pocket when under pressure. I’ve heard and read all of the guys in the local media try to explain Reid’s behavior of this past week, but nobody has explained it as if Kolb doesn’t think Kolb is as good as he thought.
I contend that Reid has found numerous flaws in Kolb’s game. I think he has shared some of those flaws with Kolb and that’s the reason the young man has accepted the benching. Notice how other quarterbacks demand to be traded after this type of benching. Reid has been lying to all of us and he’s lying to protect Kolb.
I agree that the offensive line isn’t anything to write home about but you’ve got to be physically and mentally tough to play quarterback in the NFL. Notice that Vick has been calm in the pocket behind the same pathetic line. For years McNabb stood behind the line when it struggled and he didn’t panic.
Back to the receivers, Jackson and Maclin aren’t made for the west coast offense. Remember how both of them were knocked out of the game by physical play during the preseason. If you make short passes the main part of the Eagles offense, it will expose the inability of both Jackson and Maclin to thrive against a physical secondary.
If either Jackson or Maclin had been hit like Brent Celek was on the Vick throw down the middle at the end of the half, they wouldn’t have come back into the game. Notice how Jackson is going out of his way to avoid contact. He’s getting on the ground at times rather than risk getting hit. I think it makes sense, but you can’t run an offense dependent on short throws with your top receiver getting on the ground rather taking the hit.
Reid will have to get Jason Avant and Riley Cooper more involved in the game plan, if Kolb becomes the starter again, because they can catch those short throws and take the pounding. Jackson is too small to take the pounding, while Maclin is big enough physically but he doesn’t have enough heart to take the pounding.
There’s one thing that a football player can always smell and its a football player who doesn’t want to get hit. Jackson, Maclin and Kolb don’t like to get hit.
I don’t know that it’s accurate to say that they aren’t meant for the WCS. Jerry Rice was not a big physical WR and as I recall most of his huge plays being deep bombs up the sideline or slant and go type routes you can’t argue that Jerry Rice is not THE prototypical WCO/WR, without him it never would have been popularized. The big problem today was that the TE wasn’t really that involved, which won’t be a regular thing.
In the original WCO, sure John Taylor was there, but TEs, RB’s and FB’s also took on the load of the short to intermediate stuff open Rice up for the bombs. Basically, they need to get McCoy a little more involved in the short to intermediate passing game or at least it has to be more regular. It would be great in Leonard Weaver was uninjured.
Gotta admit it was a bit gratifying to see the offense fall back comfortably into the “5” style deep ball game again.
I got to agree with the observation that the receivers are best with the deep play. Not only do they make plays, but you can even see a change in their body language as they run with more authority when cathcing a long pass.
The deep passes over the classic west coast offense had to be in Andy Reid’s mind when he decided to make the change in QB position.
And please stop with the comparisons between the Eagles wide receivers and Jerry Rice. The reality is that for whatever reason, the west coast offense was not working with Kelvin Kolb and consequently the receivers were mediocre. Is not a coincidence to see them now fluorish with Michael Vick. This offense is best with big plays, as it was done in the past.
Jerry Rice ran a lot of slants and he could take it to the house at any time. Slants are run across the middle. No way could Jackson thrive going across the middle As for Maclin, I’m not sure he can survive running deep routes. He reminds me of Reggie Brown.
Good stuff G.
I have been saying the same thing since last year which is why I don’t have the Eagles WR corp ranked as highly as many other fans do, when they come up against a physical,mam to man cover scheme
they become “very quiet” and disappear.. I expect some up and coming games versus the Redskins,Titans,49ers,Cowboys, will show how “unphysical” they really are and will probably ..
Love your insight G..I dont like to get hit either but I think Im pretty brave..There’s a difference between not liking to get hit and not be willing to isn’t there?..Maclin isn’t as bad as your making him out to be..Jackson and Kolb are tho..But thats a smart mindset for DJax because of his frame.
I think Reid wanted Vick as starting QB since day one
He had to see something inn Kolb that worried him but then why give him the big $$$
Makes no sense
I agree about the receivers going over the middle– they want no part of it and the future opponents seeing the game film have to notice it also
You can’t give up that part of the passing attack and win against good teams
Maybe a big guy like Copper can be worked in
G, I don’t know where to start so I’ll just say I disagree with most of what you said. Sure anyone looks catching deep passes after 8 seconds of running. It’s all pretty simple. Vick is a Ferrari and Kolb is a SUV. If you were Reid which one would you rather be driving. Now everywhere Reid goes people are looking at his new car with admiration. (as long as it works)
Butch, the difference with Jerry Rice is that he had heart (which G is question about Maclin). Rice wasn’t built like TO, but he also wasn’t small like Jackson and was tougher than Maclin. So while Maclin has the body type to be successful in this offense and others, does he have the heart to take a pounding on a bunch of short passes. That’s what G is questioning. And I just don’t think Jackson can continue to take the hits physically because he’s small. I said it several months ago that McNabb was the best type of QB for Maclin and Jackson because they are best suited for making plays down the field and not in danger of getting smashed by linebackers. Now with Vick, they can go back to making plays down the field. Leave the dirty work to Celek, Avant and Cooper.
scorp, how is a QB who points fingers at Jackson and Maclin to explain away his pitiful play good for them? McNabb was NOT the best type of QB for them. I have seen something very interesting in the last 3 games. Hardly any passes into the ground. Fewer passes behind the receivers. While I don’t like Vick because of his past, I am not missing #5.
The Defensive Game plan by the Jaguars was about the worst I have seen in a while..
Did anyone see how wide open the middle of the field was (especially in the 2nd half)
I swear I saw TE B Celek running down the middle of the field numerous times with no one within 15 yeards of him… It was like shoveling snow at the North Pole…
After being burnt deep by D-Jax/Maclin, they dropped 3 Deep and left the middle of the field open
Thank You G Cobb!! This is what I’ve been saying for over a year now. These things about the WCO QB and WRs were evident before the preseason began. The WCO creator Walsh himself always had at least one starting WR who was 6’2″ or better, strong, and fearless to run those quick slants (without getting pushed out of position and ruining the timing of the patterns) and battle for jump balls inside the red zone – Dwight Clark, Rice, Taylor, and Owens. Much of the vaunted YAK occured when these bigger men established position on the slant or bubble screen between the defense and QB to allow a window for the QB to hit. That is one of the reasons we have had little success with these wideouts in the red zone – they score on bombs but can’t outmuscle or outleap in confined spaces. Cooper is the only wideout on the active roster with the body type to meet the requirements of Walsh. The starting receivers on this team are better suited to another offense – which is not a bad thing if the coach adapts to the personnel. And Cooper should be getting more snaps regardless of who plays QB or what the offensive scheme happens to be.
Walsh also said the number one thing he looked for in a QB (before looking at any of the other very important qualities) was the ability to elude the first pass rusher who makes it through the line. He said this is because the WCO blocking schemes will always allow a minimum of one man free. Kolb may be quick enough but he certainly does not intuitively use that quickness if he has it. Kolb’s inclination is to quickly dump the ball even if the receivers are not open in order to avoid the sack. There were many times in his 2009 and prior appearances when he threw scary passes into traffic when the pass rushers approached. He doesn’t have the instincts (and maybe not the ability) to juke and move to create space and time, even Garcia and Favre (neither of who would be considered fast) intuitively know when to dance, spin, and create more opportunities – even an All-Pro WCO offensive line is designed to depend on this innate ability of the QB to elude. That is why Walsh grabbed Garcia when no one else could understand it. To make matters worse when Kolb throws the ill-advised passes he can’t muster the speed on them to avoid possible interceptions.
With Vick (and McNabb for that matter) we have a person that we obviously knew could meet Walsh’s first criteria on elusiveness, but he never had much experience passing or appeared remotely interested in learning. Earlier in his career he left the college game (against the advice of Beamer who knew he wasn’t ready for pro passing) because he know he would be financially secure before he even hit the first practice session. There was little financial incentive for him to change his freelancing habits. Now because he is broke he is willing to do anything possible to exploit the talents he has been wasting. Dononvan has a cannon for an arm but needs a bit of a windup to crank it 60 yards. Vick can throw it just as far without effort – this is a man who was a better powerlifter in college than most of the offensive and defensive linemen on the team!! Kolb can’t even imagine attempting the same passes. Vick appears (it is too soon to say for sure) that he can also use that cannon over the middle on the short stuff and float the ball in between defenders on the zone. Donovan was streaky on those types of passes. Kolb is a master at the touch passes but squeezing the ball into traffic with power is risky for him. BTW can you imagine Kolb getting the ball in the endzone to Maclin on the last TD of the 1st half before the defender arrived to bat it down or worse? It is possible Vick, if he continues to work hard and the press, fans, and Banner/Roseman do not run him out of town (I think Andy was in #5’s corner and is in #7’s) can be better than both of his predecessors. There are few things more motivated than a man who needs a dollar to keep the creditors away.
G, I agree about Jeremy Pinkston… I mean Maclin being afraid of getting hit. You saw him hearing the footsteps all day, but I dont the same can be said about Jackson. He’s a tough little dude, but he’s a realist. Just like Vick said earlier in the week that everyone’s telling him to stop playing wrecklessly with his body or he’s going to get injured, I think D-Jax’s peers convinced him of the same. He may try to avoid the hit, but not at the expense of giving up on plays.
As for the Kolb speculation, that’s all it is – speculation. Everyone in the media has their own theory on it and we’ll never know the truth until Kolb is given a chance.
One last thing, I love reading your articles, but whats with the repeating of yourself for dramatic affect? Its been popping up in a lot of your articles lately… Its gotta go.
Let me say it again… Its gotta go.
I repeat…It’s gotta go..
This is just hilarious. I’ll take ‘hearing footsteps’, ‘avoiding contact’, or whatever you want to throw into the Maclin hate mix. I don’t care what he heard or what you’ve seen in his play, I’ll take Jeremy Maclin’s catches and touchdowns any day. He is a WR who catches passes and scores touchdowns on a regular basis. Some of you want more than that, I’m satisfied with completions and touchdowns.
It’s like:
Man I really hate those Phillies! I mean, seriously, 63 loses, that’s just unacceptable. Oh what? They have the second best record in baseball and are going to the playoffs, with a strong lineup and great pitching? Your missing the point, it’s not about the bottom line, it’s about finding a way to hate because it’s Philly and that’s what (we) do. Right?
The Phillies comparison is completely ridiculous. I realize that was the point, but come on…
Dont get me wrong, I love that Maclin poses another deep threat. I praise him with the things he does right, but I also criticize him for the plays underneath where balls go in and out of his hands that should be an easy catch. The “Maclin hate” as you call it is not undeserved. There’s no reason that someone at this level should have the drops that he has. He plays scared, and thats not good enough.
Shamburg, I hear you, and I’m not saying that A) Maclin is perfect, B) I love the guy as a WR or C) He’s better than Jackson or anything…..
All I’m saying is that he can drop all the balls he wants if he scores 2 TDs – look at all the top WRs, they drop balls too.
The man is in his second year with the team. He has produced steadily, and seems to be improving. I don’t see any reason to nitpick about a guy who’s making steady, contributions to our team’s success.
I guess (as an optimist) I just don’t see your pessimism, but maybe that’s just the age old debate….
Reidsucks, I am talking about on field play and their style of play. I’m not talking about the off field stuff that people exaggerate. On the field, a QB like McNabb was the best kind of QB because of his ability to extend plays and make big throws down the field. And we’re seeing it with Vick. Please, don’t let your hate for McNabb miss the point. We’re not talking about “pointing fingers” or whatever. We’re talking about playing football.
schill, you said something that I cant dispute. He’s improving. In time he may win me over, but right now, I just dont love the guy. Anyway, my original point was less about criticizing him and more about defending D-jax… and busting G’s balls. I repeat… and busting G’s balls.
sham, I’m all for defending D-jax (to this day the only real criticism of him I’ve had is (other than some bonehead comments that I excuse due to youth), is his ugly goatee – seriously, just a little trimmer wound do the job.
And, TRUST ME, I’m all for bustin G’s balls. Though he deserves a lot of credit for creating this forum and quite often contributing unique, quality analysis.
Sham and schill – 2 things annoyed me about this game – 1) Djax – the play where he had the first down and cut and then gave up the first down (know where the first down is and drag that second foot – you would think after the first challenge he would remember the sideline and 2) 3rd and 2 and 4rth and 1 and we can’t get it? We need to be able to run for two yards in two plays.
#1) If any of you remember, D-Jax got a little lazy and lost his field prescence in the Packer Game too
which led to the 4th & 1 play at the end of the game, where on the play before, he had some room to dive forward for the 1st down and simply went down short of where the 1st Down yardage was..
He needs to keep his focus and improve his field prescense
#2) Poor play calling and execution on both those 3rd/4th Down plays.. If yuo know you may go for a 4t h& short, then 3rd Down is the down to call a fake and go for the big play…But even aside from that, on 4th & 1, you don’t call a pitch-out to Mike Bell who is a norh & south Runner and not a sweep,speed guy. You would want to call a roll-out for Vick where he has an option to run or throw for the 1st Down..
and after all this, they did get a bad spot on that, but Mike bell to me is a wasted Roster Spot and has done virtually nothing for this team all Camp,Summer and now in the early season..I would release him today…
Paulman, and you would have released Hanson, who got a pick. And you would have released Tapp, who got a sack…. you (fantasize about) brash decisions all the time. I’m not saying Bell will turn out great. But to want to just cut his *** this early in the year is jumping to conclusions, which you have shown to do quite often.
Look, short yardage situations HAVE improved for the birds – see Leaonard Weaver (prior to the injury), Michael Vick running for them, McCoy doing well, and even Schmidty catching a few short passes to advance the chains.
Hind sight is always 20/20 with those, and sure that shotgun vick thing a few games back was a bad call, but seriously, overall this area has been improved on the team. I’m honestly, really OK with it. Especially if they keep winning. If they lose games by not getting conversions, then we examine it. But a few missed opportunities in a blowout win, hey, let’s not nitpick.
Navy and Pman – on DJAX,
yeah. he is imperfect, and those were errors on his part. That’s going to come with him being a playmaker. He’s going to miss sometimes. But like I said above, we won by a lot and he had a big contribution to the win. I’m sure he’ll look at that and learn from it. Let’s move on.
Good points NAvy and PaulMan. DJax needs to focus on details, as well as avoid the alligator arms that he showed. Having said that, Big Red has to avoid putting 170 (or less) pound people over the middle for 3 yard games. He won’t last the season unless he does. Which brings up the question – can Red change his offensive approach based on the players that he has?!?
I got 4 words…For who?…For what?….
We’ve got 5 RB’s on the active roster now..I think M. Bell is expendable at this point.
Trent Edwards is now available, for what it’s worth.
We’re gonna kill those Deadskins!!
GO BIRDS…
I repeat..GO BIRDS!
I still want him (D-JAx) on my team…
I was also encouraged on how Maclin bounced back after a shaky start to the game with a drop or 2 and then received a nice hit in the back (by Sean Considine) but ended up with making big plays of his own… Those 2 complement so well and I sure that Defensive Secondaries have nightmares trying to match-up,pick their posion when they are both clicking like they were yesterday… What I really like so far is that Vick is using the entire field to attack which makes it awful difficult as a Defense to stay with all these WR’s (Avant/Cooper & Celek) running all around the field and having a QB who can make those tough throws. (the TD pass just before the half was amazing to Macling in the endzone. as a defender, how can you stop that type of play???)
I’m wondering if the Jags were using a press type coverage like DJax has had a problem with. It’s stopped him before and I heard it’s something he’s worked on in the offseason. I’m sure he’ll see it come Sunday. I think it might be a game where AR rolls out the “bigs” and uses more Avant, and Cooper.
One thing I did notice Offensively is the Eagles lined up in much wider formations which I like to see and makes the Defense have to cover the entire fields, It also helps the QB Vick in his Pre-snap Reads
I hate when they use the “Bunch” formations for when they line up the WR’s too close to the O/Lineman, the Eagles have a harder time picking up the reads,blitzes, and less field to operate in and the WR run into each other.Spread them WR’s out and let them utilitze their biggest asset which is speed..(this is one way to put players “in position to succeed”).
WWW I had the same thought about press coverage, but we will find out against better defenses.
Go Brids!! Crush the ‘Skins!!!
Interesting stats:
* Two key things about the Eagles offense after 3 games. One, they haven’t been turning the ball over. They have just one giveaway – an Eldra Buckley fumble in Week 1 – in 12 quarters. Vick still hasn’t thrown an interception in 89 attempts. Only one other team has just 1 turnover through 3 weeks – the Jets. The second thing about the offense is their play on third down. They’ve converted 40.0 percent of their third-down opportunities in the first 3 games, including 5 of 13 Sunday. They’re 13th in the league in third-down efficiency, which is much better than last year when they finished 23rd (36.2).
* The biggest third-down difference has been the productivity at quarterback. Vick has an impressive 122.6 third-down passer rating heading into Week 4. Only the Falcons’ Matt Ryan has a better third-down rating. Donovan McNabb usually was somewhere around the middle of the pack in third-down passer rating during his career. Was 14th last year (86.4). Vick gives the Eagles two things on third down. His legs make the Eagles more dangerous on third-and-short because defenses can’t bring the safety up in the box without leaving one-on-one coverage on the outside. And his arm has made third-and-long much more makeable than it was last season. The Eagles already have converted 6 of 17 third downs of 10 yards or more, including 2 of 4 Sunday. Last year, the Eagles converted just 12 third downs of 10 yards or more the entire season and didn’t convert their first one until Game 6.
* Despite heavy blitzing by the Jaguars, the Eagles again operated mainly out of 3- and 4-wide receiver sets Sunday. Thirty of the 48 offensive plays they ran in the first 3 quarters included more than 2 wideouts. All 3 of Vick’s touchdown passes came out of a 3-wide receiver, 1-running back, 1-tight end set. He completed 7 of 15 passes for 207 yards and 3 TDs in the first 3 quarters out of a 3-1-1.
* Ten of DeSean Jackson’s 13 receptions have gone for first downs, including 4 of his 5 catches Sunday. Jeremy Maclin has 8 first downs on 11 catches. Tight end Brent Celek has 5 on 9 catches. Slot receiver Jason Avant, who had 26 first downs on 41 catches last season, has just 2 on 7 so far this year.
Interesting option from one of my geeky sites…. – they were not as impressed by Vick as others were….
(relative to Vick…) It might be more instructive to say “Good, but not as good as you think, and probably a lot worse than it looks by Week 10.” After two quarters of effective mop-up duty against a Green Bay Packers team with a very good pass defense, Vick has started games against the teams with the two worst pass defense DVOAs in the league last season: Detroit and Jacksonville. And neither has shown much to suggest improvement this season. For these sorts of teams, 270 yards and two touchdowns is an average performance, not a good one. And Vick has averaged 285 yards and 2.5 TDs per game — slightly above average. But he also has had the league’s 12th-best passing offense from a year ago to work with.
So a performance that ranked 10th in DYAR among starting quarterbacks this week (including rushing DYAR) is likely to drop even further once the woeful Jacksonville pass defense gets factored in. Although highlight shows featured what Vick did on his three completions of 42 or more yards, he was wildly ineffective at times.
On Philly’s first four drives, Vick tossed a 61-yard touchdown pass to DeSean Jackson but otherwise went 2-of-8 for 6 yards with a sack. After an effective two-minute drill to get an 11-point lead, Vick led two possessions that combined for seven plays by going 2-of-4 for 22 yards and a sack, with both completions coming on third-and-long and ending up short of the sticks, leading to punts. He was only particularly effective once he got the ball back again, with 5:30 left in the third quarter.
That the Jaguars had scored only three points had nothing to do with Vick; that the Eagles had mustered only 14 was mostly on him. The great arm and athleticism are still there, and Vick has certainly improved his patience in the pocket. But it’s easy to do that against a dreadful pass defense. We won’t know much more about the player Vick actually is until we see him against better pass defenses, starting with the Washington Redskins this week.
One last D-Jax note… The kid is very young. This was the first time that he ever got lazy with not dragging his foot and he was visually embarrased and upset about that and the play where he fell a yard short of getting the first down. He’ll correct those things just like he corrected the boneheaded play of dropping the ball before crossing the plane of the endzone!
As for the play where he fell short, I dont think that was an issue of not knowing where the sticks were, I think he was just trying to do too much. He cut to get behind Celek’s block, but Celek didn’t block the guy DeSean exxpected him to. In hindsight, he should’ve just dove to the sticks, but had Celek picked up the right block, that play could’ve gone another 10 yards.
Two of DeSean Jackson longest TD catch was thrown by Kobb last year. So don’t say kobb can’t get them the ball.