Was anybody shocked to see future Hall of Famer Tony Gonzalez catch 7 passes for 83 yards and two touchdowns? Who was supposed to be covering Michael Turner when Matt Ryan dumped the ball to him and he ran with the ball for a 32-yard gain? Who was at fault when they started the game with Turner making numerous long runs?
Were you surprised when the middle linebacker got his clock cleaned on the 61-yard Turner run in the fourth quarter. Casey Matthews was frozen in place as the tackle cracked down on him and opened a huge hole up the middle.
During the first drive of the game, he was dominated by one of the Falcons guards, then the center got into him on another long run by Turner. He just doesn’t have the size or quickness to cover all the ground they’re asking him to cover in that “Wide Nine”. The youngster would have to be one of the best middle linebackers in the league to be able to meet those demands game in and game out.
They would need to do more stunts in front of Matthews to give him a chance to survive against good running teams.
There were other plays where Matthews attacked the line of scrimmage and made plays against Turner in or near the backfield. He made 4 solo tackles and got an assist on three other plays. Still giving up big plays and getting beaten in the Red Zone negates the times when he played well.
Jamar Chaney has missed four or five open field tackles in the two games the Eagles have played. He made 5 solo tackles and made assists on 4 others. Still all of the Eagles linebackers are getting blocked too much.
How many times did the Falcons need to throw the ball to Gonzalez in the red zone before Chaney would look him
up and get so close to him that they wouldn’t throw the football his way?
You have to play man-to-man within the zone coverage on a guy like Gonzalez. Any opening is enough for him to find a way to get open. You can’t play be content with being near him on regular zone defense when they throwing to him so much, especially in the Red Zone. You have to be all over him to the point where they won’t throw the ball to him.
Numerous times Chaney dropped in his coverage with Gonzalez nearby, but didn’t clamp on him. Nearly every time 
Ryan threw the ball to Gonzalez, Chaney was close enough to get in the picture, so that he’ll be in picture of Gonzalez when he goes into the Hall of Fame.
Weakside linebacker Moise Fokou isn’t getting much done out there. He was beaten on the touchdown throw to Ovie Mughelli. Chaney and Matthews were coming up trying to get to Ryan, while Fokou was beaten in his pass coverage of the fullback. He made 1 solo tackle and had 1 assist. That’s terrible for a linebacker because tackling is supposed to be a linebacker main job.
If the Birds continue to let teams put 30-plus points on the board there will be pressure on the coaching staff to make some changes at one or more of the linebacker positions.
As a matter of fact – NO, I am not surprised Tony Gonzalez caught 7 passes for 83 yards, and on one TD, the LB was in fact touching him – this is why Tony G will be a first ballot HOF, and is probably the best TE to ever play the game.
Until the last two drives – your comments are meaningless – the Eagles held the Falcons to 154 yards through 3 quarters –
As for Turners 61 yard run – the Guards released the DTs outside, and all three interior lineman blasted MAtthews and lead the way up the field.
Now – what happened the last two drives 160 yards in the 4rth Qtr with the game on the line – can’t let that happen – O needs to hold the ball more, D needs to get off the field –
lets see how the linebackers play when the eagles dont play the ‘wide 9’ bcs the ‘wide 9’ gives the offensive linemen waaaaaay too my free space to get to the next level of blocking and it takes deffensive line out of the picture a lot of times
mubi, I agree. Need to calm down on the wide 9, at least for now until the LBs can progress a little. It’s like throwing in the game and taking away the guys that can help them. It works in your LBs are all pros. In Tenn, the Dline coach had pretty good LBs. Not the same here in Philly.
navy, I do agree with you, but sometimes those 1 or 2 drives are the most important. In many cases it doesn’t matter if you shut down something for 3 quarters. If the game is close, you need to shut it down for 4 quarters. When you have good football teams, it’s not expected to get the best of another good team for the entire game. The difference though is those key situations. Whether they shut it down in the 1st or 4th, it all depends on when the game was at hand. Because there are games where you will give up big numbers in the first half, shut down the team the second half and win. And then there are games where you shut down the team 1 half they adjust and come back and exploit you and you lose. So in actuality it doesn’t matter matter when you shut something down IF you don’t shut it down when it matters most. And stop being so condescending. We already know you’re going to cover for the team regardless of how bad it is. But you don’t have to be an ass.
Scorp – agree – it sucks. Falcons made some plays in the 4rth Q and we didn’t – I commented to my buddy when MaClin got tackled about a yard short with the score 31-28 we really needed to hold the ball. Painful, no excuses, they didn’t finish the job.
Just trying to throw out this ‘baby with the bath water’ mentality. Need to work on Red Zone D, playing through all 4 qtrs, and limit big plays –
Now the comment on Chaney missing tackles – that’s a good comment – if he is missing 2+ open field tackles a game – that would be an issue
Mathews is not an NFL caliber starting player…. special teams player at best….get him out of there Castillo!!!!
Jott – based upon what? He stuck his nose in there last night and was cracking heads – no excuses for a porr team D showing in the 4rth Qtr – but you hold the Falcons to 154 yards through 3 qtrs – how are you going to point out Matthews and go – he’s not cutting it unless you are reading other peoples posts –
Now – in the 4rth Qtr…. those last two drives – who on the D shouldn’t get blamed – its a team game – the D failed to stop the Falcons twice – can’t let that happen again – but why Matthews –
i know you cant just blame mathews for the collapse in the 4th quarter but you do have to do something about it…..if they do something like bench a player or two it sends a strong message throughout the entire locker room. either you play your best or you will get benched and lose your job….sooo i would really liek them to do something here
All of the LB’s are horrid & shouldn’t even be allowed on the field. They couldn’t tackle a dead man! It’s a disgrace & a slap in the face to any real Eagles fan, who knew that these Lb’s needed to be upgraded in the off season.
The problem is, who are you going to replace them with…
Can slide Chaney back to the MLB (where he belongs) to replace Matthews and bring Rolle out to replace Chaney on the outside..
I don’t see too many other options with this group… Clayton/Jordan are decent coverage LB’s but are smaller, lighter than the group that’s in there so there is very little they can do in stopping the run.. I believe without getting a proven LB off the streets,waiver wire, in a trade , who would then need a few weeks to a month to get up to speed in this scheme probably doesn’t do the team all that well at this point, so they will probably have to end up riding the current ponies they have at LB Corp… I really believe that the current 3 Starters would have a difficult time being starters on any of the 31 teams in the NFL and I mean that… Chaney is a marginal NFL Caliber LB but MAtthews and Fokou are not NFL Caliber Starting players in my opinion
Fokou was a 6th Round Pick and Chaney a 7th Round Pick so it’s not like a whole lot of Scouts/Draft geeks saw a whole lot of upside with these guys to begin with… I would take MLB Joe MAys back from Denver than any of these current Eagle Starters and I stated all off-season that a key piece to add was LB Steven Tullock who played under the wide-nine system of Washburn while at the Titans and would have been a great addition and leader of that LB Corp that the younger players could have learned under.. but we can’t get everything and the Eagles did talk to Tullock’s reps but couldn’t match the $$ that the Lions offered him…but he was the missing piece to this Defense..
Can you say Asante for Lance Briggs