Teams Philadelphia Eagles - The Gold Standard

[trikster]

Defence still sucks, corners look scared every time the football is headed towards them, LB's couldn't cover in the middle of the field, way too many missed tackles.

One thing the D did well was stop the GB run. Forced them to throw in the goal-line as they didn't think they could punch it in.

P.S. Maddox taken to hospital for precautionary reasons.

 

[Southerntakeover]

The reaction to Maddox lead me to think that there's something serious there.

You don't often get the entire team on the field like that.

 

[sblack]

Maddox will be out for a while, Jones injured as well so they'll have to make a move somewhere.

More soft tissue injuries gutting this team again.

Reports are Maddox was very precautionary and he was joking as he was on the stretcher.

 

[trikster]

Aaron Rogers was 58-0-1 when leading by 10+ points in his career

until tonight

 

[ChockNurris]

 

[rumply]

If you wanted to win a game, would you give him the ball?

well there's that but one target indicates something is going on...maybe he's getting packaged up for Ramsey.

 

[rumply]

I know this much - Goedart is a very nice run blocker.

 

[sblack]

Goedert*

I think his absence last week was noticeable for the run game. He allows so much flexibility as his blocking is so so good that we dont have to use an extra OL.

He could very quickly become better than Ertz as an overall TE

 

[rumply]

Eagles release Fort to re-sign Scandrick so that's one more warm body to fill in at cb. & Maddox flew home with the team a good sign he might be right in a couple weeks, hope Sendejo gave him a foot massage most of the way...

 

[Exe Gesis]

rumor eagles might pursue jalen ramsay trade with them so battered at CB

 

[rumply]

Goedert at work

 

[Southerntakeover]

Aaron Rogers was 58-0-1 when leading by 10+ points in his career

until tonight

The second longest streak in history. The first- Tom Brady- we also ended.

 

[rumply]

& last weeks blitz numbers wouldn't have been much better

 

[Southerntakeover]

That one sack was a strip sack that led immediately to a touchdown though.

 

[rumply]

Blitzing has to be part of the scheme but he's upped the frequency the last 2 weeks & it's proving costly.

 

[sblack]

The Athletic is fantastic if anyone is looking for proper journalism and analysis

1. 12 personnel was a huge factor in this game
Sheil Kapadia
It feels strange to label a Week 4 victory as a season-saving win, but in some ways, it’s appropriate with the Eagles. Three straight losses and a 1-3 record would have been challenging (but not impossible) to overcome.
The Eagles-Packers film revealed a terrific offensive game plan, a defensive tweak and more. Here’s what I noticed. Stats are courtesy of Sportradar unless otherwise noted.
Perhaps the story of the game was how the Packers defended the Eagles’ 12 personnel (one RB, two TEs, two WRs) grouping. Green Bay defensive coordinator Mike Pettine was committed to playing nickel (five defensive backs) and dime (six defensive backs) against 12 rather than staying in his base defense (four defensive backs). Essentially, he dared the Eagles to run the ball, and they did just that. Eagles running backs carried 14 times for 99 yards (7.1 YPC) out of multiple-tight-end sets. Dallas Goedert was a beast in the run game. My general feeling is that evaluating tight ends based on how they block is silly in 2019 when most are essentially just bigger wide receivers. But Goedert appears to be the exception. When he’s on the field, the Eagles average 5.26 YPC. When he’s off, they average 4.02. On the season, the Eagles are averaging 6.14 YPC out of 12 personnel. That’s the sixth-best rushing average for any personnel grouping league-wide. The Packers have a terrific defensive line. But they couldn’t hold up in their sub packages when the Eagles were in 12 personnel.
Everything came together for the Eagles in pass protection against the Packers. (Benny Sieu / USA Today)
2. Pass protection was a team effort
Thursday was the sixth game in Carson Wentz’s career in which he hasn’t been sacked. The combined two sacks/QB hits tied for the fewest he’s taken in 44 games. The Eagles offensive line had its best game since Week 1, but it wasn’t just the offensive line. On 16 of 27 passing plays, Wentz got rid of the ball in 2.5 seconds or less. On average, Wentz took 2.43 seconds to release the ball in Week 4, compared to an average of 2.62 seconds in the first three weeks. The game plan helped Wentz (he did not complete a pass that traveled more than 15 yards from the line of scrimmage), he executed well and the offensive line did a good job. That all combined to produce a clean game with no sacks and no turnovers.
3. This was a Doug Pederson game
This was one of Pederson’s best-called games since Super Bowl LII. He and the Eagles coaching staff were one step ahead of the Packers all night long. The screen to Goedert in the red zone on the Eagles’ third possession that picked up 13 yards on second-and-10 was huge. The mesh/wheel call on the 20-yard touchdown to Jordan Howard was the perfect call at the perfect time. On that play, Howard did not have a defender within 10.98 yards of him when he made the catch. No player in Week 4 was more wide open on a touchdown reception, according to Next Gen Stats.
The Eagles talked about keeping things simple for a Thursday night game, but they used at least seven different run schemes. An underrated drive came in the fourth quarter when the Eagles got the ball at their own 1 with nine minutes left, holding a 34-27 lead. They inserted Halapoulivaati Vaitai as a sixth offensive lineman and ran the same play three times in a row to get out to the 22. The Eagles gained 50 yards on that drive, took 3:58 off the clock and forced the Packers to start their next drive from their own 11. The five touchdown drives the Eagles produced on Thursday were the second most for regular-season games during the Pederson era. I said last week that I thought this stretch of games against good defenses (the Jets aside) was big for the Wentz/Pederson battery. Wentz played well, but I thought Pederson really shined.
4. The Eagles lacked discipline on defense
On the first drive, Derek Barnett was called for unnecessary roughness for his hit on Jamaal Williams. On the second drive, Zach Brown got called for a face mask. On the third drive, Rodney McLeod was whistled for a face mask. On the same play, Kamu Grugier-Hill jumped offsides, giving Aaron Rodgers a free play. Rodgers found Davante Adams for a 40-yard gain. Later, Barnett was flagged for illegal use of hands. Rasul Douglas was whistled for pass interference. Brown got hit with an unnecessary roughness penalty. Avonte Maddox was called for pass interference. Johnathan Cyprien was called for pass interference. In all, Eagles penalties gave the Packers eight first downs. To put that into perspective, Washington had eight first downs total in its loss to the Giants. I’m sure some here will disagree with some of the calls against the Eagles, but the bottom line is they aren’t good enough defensively to give away yards and first downs like that.
5. Jim Schwartz kept trying different things
When Schwartz tried to blitz, the results were ugly: Rodgers was 5-for-7 for 145 yards. That’s 20.7 YPA. On the Packers’ first drive, Rodgers got rid of the ball quickly against a five-man rush and found Adams for a 58-yard gain. Later, Schwartz attempted to disguise coverages and dropped Barnett while blitzing Brown. Rodgers reacted with an easy 13-yard completion. In the second half, Schwartz played a lot of Cover 2 and Tampa 2. It might not have felt like it because Rodgers made some incredible throws, but that adjustment was relatively successful. The Packers scored seven points in the second half. Their five possessions in the second half resulted in two punts, a touchdown, a turnover on downs and an interception. Rodgers averaged 5.8 net yards per pass play and had one completion of 20-plus yards on 34 dropbacks after halftime. In the first half, he averaged 10.1 net yards per pass play and had three big completions. Given how well the defense is performing against the run, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Schwartz go to more two-deep looks against dangerous quarterbacks in the weeks ahead.
Rodney McLeod breaks up a pass intended for Jimmy Graham in the fourth quarter. (Jeff Hanisch / USA Today)
6. There were some impressive individual defensive plays
Again, the overall defensive performance was far from great (27 points, 491 total yards), but there were some huge individual plays. Andrew Sendejo had a great pass breakup in the red zone on third down that essentially saved four points. Douglas, who has played really well the past few weeks, did a great job of not biting on a double move on third down in the red zone in the second quarter to force the Packers to kick a field goal. Barnett had the big sack fumble, which led to a great scoop in traffic by Brandon Graham, who I thought had his best game of the year. Maddox had plenty of rough moments, but also had good coverage on what could have been a touchdown in the fourth quarter. McLeod broke up a pass in the end zone intended for Jimmy Graham. Again, this was not a great night for the defense, but if one or two of those plays I just mentioned go differently, the Eagles lose.
7. Leftovers
Zach Ertz put on a route-running clinic against man coverage. He had seven catches for 65 yards on eight targets. Five of those grabs went for first downs. … I think the Eagles need to come up with personnel groupings that don’t involve Cyprien. That might mean just playing more nickel with Grugier-Hill, given who else is healthy. But Cyprien really struggled Thursday and is a liability in coverage. … I loved the physicality of Alshon Jeffery on his touchdown against Jaire Alexander. … Kevin King got the best of Jeffery for much of the game, but Jeffery had a big third-down conversion at the end of the third quarter. … We know Howard ran well, but he also had a couple tremendous blitz pickups. … If you’re looking for a full All-22 breakdown, stay tuned. I’ve got something cooking for later this week. … And finally, credit to the great Fran Duffy for first pointing this out, but check out how in sync Wentz and Ertz are after Howard’s fourth-quarter touchdown run.
(Top photo of Jordan Howard: Stacy Revere / Getty Images)

 

[Southerntakeover]

Well, you don't see a 10 sack game often. Not much to take away from that- the Jets were terrible and we played to their level.

 

[Southerntakeover]

Also, am I the only one that has to fight the urge to scream when Sproles gets into the game?

 

[sblack]

Also, am I the only one that has to fight the urge to scream when Sproles gets into the game?

Yeah I don't see the need to have him in the game any more. Sanders has better hands, and both Howard and Sanders are better at rushing the football. Leave him as a return specialist and give him a 1-3 touches a game, that's all that's needed.

 

[Southerntakeover]

Yeah I don't see the need to have him in the game any more. Sanders has better hands, and both Howard and Sanders are better at rushing the football. Leave him as a return specialist and give him a 1-3 touches a game, that's all that's needed.

And he gets a touch / target nearly every time they put him in.

Run the offence through Howard. There is absolutely no excuse to be feeding Sproles continuously when we get no production from him.

 

[sblack]

And he gets a touch / target nearly every time they put him in.

Run the offence through Howard. There is absolutely no excuse to be feeding Sproles continuously when we get no production from him.

Not to mention his bad chop block penalty as well even when he didn't get force fed

 

[nobbyiscool]

Well, you don't see a 10 sack game often. Not much to take away from that- the Jets were terrible and we played to their level.

I came to say pretty much the same thing. I don't know that we were even that good today - this was all about the Jets. Almost 20 years I've been following NFL, I doubt I've seen too many worse teams than these Jets. About 3 minutes into the second quarter Gase already had a look of horror and shellshock, like he just had absolutely no idea what to do.

 

[sblack]

Southerntakeover Well Sproles looks like he will miss a couple games so we dont have to worry about him anymore

 

[Southerntakeover]

I'm not so far gone as to wish injury on a guy who's been as good a servant for us as Sproles (or anyone really), but I'd be suprised if we're worse off on offence. Sanders is largely taking over the receiving back role anyway.

Where we might still miss him is on punt returns- Coleman's demonstrated he can't be trusted. Unfortunately Desean's injury means that even if we get him back soon it might not be advisible we use him in that role.

 

[trikster]

Still no DJax

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