Jesus. What just happened? I thought this team was supposed to compete for a championship. Now, we’re just hoping to win a damn game.
The 49ers? Are you kidding me?
I could go on and on about the problems this team has.
On the surface, you could pick on the linebackers, safeties, offensive line, or the play calling. You could blame the rookie kicker for missing two chip-shots. Unfortunately, the problems go much deeper than just these things.
At the heart of this teams issues, is the philosophy, and game planning developed by Andy Reid. Let’s take a look…
The Eagles offense (and defense) is based on the big play which is all fine and well, but what happens if the big play isn’t there? What happens if the safeties are 40 yards off the ball and DeSean Jackson can’t get behind them? What happens when you send everyone out on routes, leaving an unblocked blitzer for Michael Vick to deal with? What happens when the head coach calls predictable plays? What happens when you have an under-sized, rookie center and a scrap-heap right guard? What happens when you go 3-and-out, and put your defense right back out on the field before they can even catch their breathe?
I realize this is a passing league and that passing the ball wins games. I get it. Many teams have proven that and I don’t want the Eagles to not throw the ball.
And I don’t expect Andy Reid and the Eagles to go out and run the ball 35-40 times per game. I don’t know if I want that, but there is a common denominator in all successful teams, and that is that they are well balanced, and can run the ball when they need to, and more importantly when they should.
The Eagles and Andy Reid do none of the above. As soon as the running game gets going, they move away from it. At times in the game when they should run, they almost always pass.
LeSean McCoy is a top 5 running back, and leads the NFL in first downs. Use him. Running keeps Michael Vick off the ground, let’s your defense catch it’s breathe, and wears down the opposing defense. It also keeps the ball from the other teams offense, and allows your offense to set up play-action. Those are five huge benefits of having a consistent running game. Betting on big, explosive plays to win you games is a is more risk than reward.
Early in the third quarter, after blocking David Akers’ field goal, the Eagles were up 20-3. Now at this stage in the game, 31 out of 32 other teams in the NFL would start running the ball, especially playing a team with such a poor offense in the 49ers.
But not Andy Reid.
In their first 4 possessions of the second half, sitting on a 17 point lead, 19 of the 24 plays were passes, 16 from the shotgun formation.
Shotgun? With a 17 point lead? Against the worst offense in football?
I’m not sure why Andy Reid continues to do this, game after game. All it takes is a few 3-and-outs, and you give the other team that many more possessions, which is exactly what they did on Sunday. The 49ers have the worst offense in football. With a 20 point lead, why would you still try to hit big plays down the field?
This philosophy affects more than just the offense. Not only is the offense dependent on the big play and the passing game, but the entire defense is built around it too.
It’s no secret that the Eagles defense is built to play with a lead, which puts tremendous pressure on the offense to score points early. This is nothing new, and something that has actually worked for the Eagles in the past (and other teams).
However, what happens if the offense can’t get you that lead early enough? When your offense goes 3-and-out and put’s your pours defense back on the field this philosophy is rendered useless.
What happens if your defense can’t stop the run, therefore keeping your offense off of the field altogether?
As of this article, the Eagles are 30th in the league in run defense. And for good reason–they have absolutely no attitude on defense, and lack fundamentals. When is the last time you saw an Eagles defender wrap up a ball carrier? You’d have to go back a few years.
The point is, you can blame Juan Castillo, the linebackers, or whoever else you want. At the end of the day, it’s Andy Reid and his offensive philosophy that is root of all their problems. Think about it.
Love to hear your thoughts!
I mostly agree. The offensive playcalling and philosophy tires the defense, as they don’t really get to gain any energy. Combine that with the wide 9, where the LBs have to be on top all the time to stop the run – a recipe for disaster. Red zone calling is awful to, rarely does McCoy get the ball with a wide or half-wide line, the same goes for Vick. This team should post 35 points per game, really. They are close to it, but not quite, due to the awful red zone efficiency. Why are they awful there? Bad calls. It’s not all about the execution. Scoring 3-5 TDs and a few FGs should be expected every game, and that would allow the defense to, frankly, stink towards the end of the game. I wish Castillo would adapt the defense as they get more tired, play a conventional 4-3 in the final third of the game if you lead by over 7 points, use the safety blitzes to pressure the QB, stop the run. Let the QB pass for the big plays, those can be intercepted, batted down or just incomplete. Don’t let the speedy 240pounder run straight ahead. He’s not giving that ball up and the damage is done as soon as he finds a gap against a tire, mediocre set of LBs.
Definitely. The play calling on both sides of the ball is hideous. Neither Andy or Juan knows how to make adjustments.
They do the same thing over and over again, no matter what the down and distance. It’s ridiculous
I was asked ” Im curious to know, what defense do you think we should run? If we do alot of man blitzes which sounds like thats what you want them to do It wouldn’t work. Our CB lack the physical play that is needed to man up and trust them 1 on 1, especially an inexperianced OLB on a TE or worse a WR.”
I replied:
I think we should play as we do in the first half, as long as it works. If we start getting crushed in the second half, as we have, it’s time to turn to the backup plan where you let play man coverage and focus the rest on stopping the run. Put our backs and safeties on their good guys, one on one, our best on their best. Double on their most prolific target if you’re too scared, I’d say the TE last game at least. Everybody else just stop the run. STOP THE RUN. Once we actually stop the run, we can drop another guy back after fakeing him as a run stopper. That’s the adjustments I’d make after half time. Last game was good in the first half, so no reason to change it, but when we’re getting crushed by Gore we gotta stop it. Stop the run first, have som faiths in the man on mans, let Nnamdi show what he’s got. Specially against the kind of QB SF has, no disrespect or anything but he’s not the biggest star in league. It’s not a perfect defense, but the main focus as they start to gain massive run yards must be to stop the run. If they start running for good yards, there is no chance of stopping them getting points, we have to cause incompletions. Or even better, interceptions.
Of course we can’t fully trust them man to man, but we gotta have as many bodies as possible up front to stop the run. The run is what’s killing, apart from the individual moments of failure, as when we had 2 tackles on the QB and 1 more guy covering on 3rd and something so there’s no way the QB could scramble for a 1st down, yet still a fourth guy drops his coverage to help get the QB and just like that they get a long pass completion. Those things can’t be stopped no matter the play call nor formation. That’s just stupid.
Edit:
And really, seriously, any one little adjustment made or mistake not made and we win against the Falcons and the 49ers. Any one little thing. One missed tackle, a stupid call, an adjustment not made, a missed easy FG. These are not factors of luch, they’re factors of skill. I think Vick really gets it. It’s not only the coaches, the kicker, the plays, the refs, the weather, it isn’t even the the injuries. It’s in each and every player to man up. Really don’t need more then that to have a blowout against the 49ers and a stable win at the Falcons. Watch the games again, if you dare. Note every mistake by every player, coach and ref. Erase just one of them, and it’s a W. Erase several of them and it’s a dream team. It’s now or never, Eagles. You got the talent, but do you have the heart? Beat the Bills, prove EVERYBODY wrong. You’re not a dream team, you stink. Nobody believes in you, not even your fans. I beg you, prove us wrong!
What’s your opinion?
With the front 4 the Eagles have, they really shouldn’t be playing that much zone defense, which is what they’re playing. Zone defenses are mostly used to mask coverage problems, which they obviously do have at LB, however I think playing a heavy “man” scheme would benefit everyone in the long run. Nnamdi Asoumugha is a cover-corner. That’s what makes him so good, but they’re asking him to play a lot of zone which makes no sense. They should at least try it because whatever they’re doing now obviously doesn’t work.
What happend to my comment?
Nvm there it was again, disappeared when I updated..
Reid’s philosophy has been killing the Eagles since the beginning. The loss in the 2002 NFC Championship game to Tampa Bay showed us all we ever needed to know about Reid. His unwillingness to acquire quality receivers, his poor play calling, his poor clock management… are all typical of the Reid philosophy. He believes that system and scheme can make up for talent. He believes that his system (constantly throwing the ball) can override the undeniable logic of having a balanced run/throw approach. His utter blind spots to these issues is either stubbornness, stupidity, or both.
In any case, I saw all I ever needed to see from Reid in that loss. When they repeated the same damn fiasco the next year against Carolina, it just made it sad. Every year since people are burning brain cells cogitating over why Reid does what he does. The truth is, he just isn’t smart enough to figure out the right things to do. Period. There is no mystery, and there hasn’t been since 2002. That he continues to be the head coach is a special form of torture.
Right on brother! I don’t think it’s sheer coincidence that teams that win the SuperBow can all run the ball, and have coaches that know how to make adjustments during the coarse of a game, or season.
I think it’s a miracle that the Eagles have had overall success under Reid, (and especially with McNabb at quarterback.)
He can’t draft, he can’t make adjustments, up until this year, he refused to run the ball, he’s not a good talent evaluator, he can’t manage the clock.
Can anyone tell me, exactly what it is that he CAN do?
Well clearly he can do a good job as a coach. Over his tenure as a coach he’s one of the more succesful, despite the playoff-failures and lack of bowl-ring. Perhaps he’s just good enough overall to pull of not excelling in any particular stat?