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“View from the Philly Pressbox” – How to Beat the Bears

In Philadelphia Eagles on December 21, 2013 at 11:40 am

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The Philadelphia Eagles and Chicago Bears roll in to the week 15 Sunday night matchup with everything on the line, of course, this depends on whether the Dallas Cowboys show up to play the Washington Redskins or fold their tent and go home after last weeks 2nd half meltdown against the Green Bay Packers. Both teams sit atop their respective divisions by the slimmest of margins. For the Eagles, they need to take care of their own business so they won’t have to worry about Dallas. The Birds will face the most well rounded offense they’ve faced all season. The Bears have a terrific back in Matt Forte, who is currently 3rd in the NFL in rushing with 1200 yards while averaging 4.7 yards per carry. He also has 66 catches for 522 yards Also, the Bears are the only team in the NFL with 2-1000 yard receivers in Alshon Jeffery, 1265 yards and Brandon Marshall with 1185 yards. The pair have combined for 170 catches. Offensively the Bears can be very good while the Eagles defense, that ranks #31 in the NFL in pass defense, can be very suspect. Jay Cutler will again be the starting QB for the Bears.

Offensively the Eagles have their own weapons. LeSean McCoy still leads the NFL in rushing with 1343 yards and has added 45 catches for 507 yards. DeSean Jackson is 5th in the NFL with 1275 yards on 75 catches with 9 TD’s. Jackson is also 134 receiving yards from tying Mike Quicks’ Eagles single season record. Nick Foles still leads the NFL in QB Efficiency with a 117.0 rating. Peyton Manning is second at 112.9.

What do the Eagles need to do to win the game? They will have to do something they haven’t done real well this season, be patient on offense and don’t panic! The Eagles have the #1 rushing offense in the NFL while the Bears have the #32, or last, rushing defense in the NFL. The Eagles boast the #2 statistical offense while the Bears have the #27 defense. The Eagles need to run the ball, throw screens, control the time of possession and strike big occasionally with Jackson, Riley Cooper and the Tight Ends. The O-Line must control the line of scrimmage, something they didn’t do as well last week. The flip side is the Eagles have the #31 ranked defense against the pass and the #30 ranked total defense. With the weapons the Bears have, keeping their offense off the field will be their best defense.

What the Eagles don’t need is a shootout! They have given up more than 21 points 5 times this season and lost 4 of the games. The only win coming in week 1 against the Redskins. The Birds need to play this one close to the vest early, get a lead and open the game up some after that. Also, control the field position, no 4th and 1’s from your own 26, and don’t get beat on special teams.

This should be a really good game!

Fly Eagles Fly!!!!!

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View from the Philly Pressbox – What Really Happened to the Eagles?

In Philadelphia Eagles on December 2, 2012 at 9:23 am

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WHAT REALLY HAPPENED TO THE EAGLES??

 As we sit here on Sunday morning of week 13 with the Philadelphia Eagles preparing to play the Dallas Cowboys the Eagles are sitting at 3 wins and 8 losses, tied with the Carolina Panthers for the worst record in the NFC. Carolina beat the Birds last week so technically they are in last place. How did a team with such high hopes fall so far, so fast??

 Michael Vick – Vick is not an elite QB in the NFL. Frankly, I wasn’t a big fan when he was running around making plays in Atlanta. Early in the season he turned the ball over game after game that not only kept the offense from scoring but put the defense in bad situations that they couldn’t handle.

 The offensive line – We knew the injury to Jason Peters in the off season was going to be a big loss; I’m just not sure we knew how big. The rash of injuries to Jason Kelce, Danny Watkins and Todd Herremans has been devastating. Those injuries have kept LeSean McCoy from doing anything this season, 750 yards rushing, after his Pro Bowl year in 2011. Obviously, the lack of protection didn’t help Vick either.

 The receivers – DeSean Jackson, Jeremy Maclin and Brent Celek have all struggled. They have 45, 41 and 43 catches respectively for 700, 528 and 504 yards. I’m not a huge fan of Jackson to begin with; he’s not an elite receiver especially if he can’t get down the field. Maclin seems to be running cautiously over the middle after getting hit hard a few times. As for Celek, I like the way he plays but every ball that has been off of him has ended up in a defenders hands. Overall, this group has underachieved. Some it could be them; some could be the lack of QB protection and some of it the QB’s themselves.

 Trent Cole and Jason Babin – These two Pro Bowlers have done nothing all season. Babin’s play and attitude got him run out of town. I wouldn’t expect Cole to be around much longer either. You have to able to rush the QB for your defense to be successful. These two combined for 7 sacks.

 The defensive backfield – Oh, where to start? They have all played poorly. Nnamdi Asomugha and Dominique Rodgers-Cromarti on the corners have been tough to watch. They don’t cover and they don’t tackle either. Kurt Coleman and Nate Allen never seem to be in position to help out from the safety spots. Coleman is second on the team in tackles with 72 and Allen is third with 55. That in itself should tell you something about the defense. All the way up to last weeks loss to Carolina there is still on going miscommunication on who is going to be where among this group.

 Coaching change – The firing of Juan Castillo, more importantly the timing of it was interesting. At the time the Eagles defense wasn’t playing that bad. It was the offense that was struggling and the defense was keeping the team in games. The Todd Bowles move has been a disaster. Now not only is the offense bad, the defense is just as bad.

 The Tale of the Tape – The Eagles have more first downs, 233-209, more rushing yards, 1,420-1,292, and equal passing yards, 2.508-2,509, than their opponents for the season which would lead you to believe they would be having a decent season.

 Here are the key stats:

 The Eagles have scored just 18 TD’s to their opponents 31.

The Eagles have thrown 12 TD passes to their opponents 20.

The Eagles have 18 sacks to their opponents 34.

The Eagles defense has scored 0 TD’s to their opponents 5.

Turnover ratio is -17.

 The future – With the injuries mounting, and a rookie QB cutting his teeth in the NFL the chances of winning many, if any, games this season seems bleak. There will be major personnel changes soon after the season. Many of the old faces will be gone. The Eagles need to determine if Nick Foles is their man moving forward. Andy Reid will likely be gone or moved upstairs. It will be a new beginning for Philadelphia Eagles football in 2013 and it will take time to get back to the top of the NFC.

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A Comparison Of The ’05, ’07 ’11 Eagles Losing Seasons

In Philadelphia Eagles on January 4, 2012 at 10:31 pm

The last time the NFL season ended on January 1 was 2005, the last time the Eagles had a losing record (6-10). That season also ended at home against the Washington Redskins and a 31-20 loss. The last time the Eagles ended 8-8 was 2007 and they finished that season with a 3 game winning streak. Of course the ’11 team was also 8-8. It’s interesting to compare the three season but lets throw some names and numbers around. Obviously Andy Reid was the Head Coach. Offensive coordinator in ’05 was Brad Childress, former Head Coach of the Vikings. In ’07 and ’11 it was Marty Morninweg. The ’05 offense scored 310 points and ranked 18th in the league. Donovan McNabb passed for 2507 yards and 16 TD’s while Brian Westbrook rushed for 617 yards and received another 616 yards. Terrell Owens also caught 47 passes for 763 yards. The ’07 offense scored 336 points and ranked 17th in the league. McNabb and AJ Feeley combined for 4005 yards passing. Westbrrok combined for 2104 yards of total offense and Kevin Curtis caught 77 balls for 1110 yards. The ’11 offense scored 396 points and ranked 8th in the league.  Michael Vick passed for 3303 yards and 18 TD’s. LeSean McCoy rushed for 1309 yards and DeSean Jackson had 961 receiving yards while Jeremy Macklin added 859 yards and Brent Celek 811 yards.  The interesting statistic is that the ’05 team finished 23rd in giveaway/takeaways, the ’07 team was 25th while the ’11 team finished 30th. The years in between, all winning seasons, were as follows” ’06 – 9th, ‘ 08 – 14th, ’09 – 2nd and ’10 – 5th. The offensive statistics bear out a simple fact that if you turnover the football in the NFL you will not win games.

The defenses are also interesting. The ’05 team under the direction of Jim Johnson gave up 388 points while finishing 28th in the league. The top 3 tacklers on that team were Jeremiah Trotter, Michael Lewis and Brian Dawkins. The ’07 team, also coordinated by Johnson, gave up 300 points and ranked 9th in the league. The top 3 tacklers were Omar Gaither, Takeo Spikes and Sheldon Brown. The ’11 team under Juan Castillo gave up 328 points and ranked 10th in the league. The leading tacklers were Jamar Chaney, Kurt Coleman and Nate Allen. What’s the most intersting is that of the 9 tacklers lsited for these years 5 of them are defensive backs. Whether that points to the play of the defensive line, linbackers or both can be argued. The years in between consistently had Quintin Mickel as a leading tackler but also had Stewart Bradley (MLB) and Trent Cole (DE)  in the Top 3. What we do know is that the defense plays a big part in the giveaway/takeaway ratio discussed above. If the offense turns the ball over too much or the defense deosn’t create turnovers it plays a major part in the teams success.

Final analysis for improving in 2012 is simple, don’t turn the ball over on offense and create turnovers on defense. Pretty simple don’t you think???

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