Monday, June 29, 2009

New PE.com Column is Posted

Posted by Tommy Lawlor at 10:21 AM
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Since things are sorta slow right now I decided to write about Gang Green. This week I covered the defense.

http://www.philadelphiaeagles.com/news/Story.asp?story_id=17921

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4 comments:

izzylangfan said...

Very interesting article on those great Eagles defenses. It prompts the question: What does it now take to have the current defense to go from very good to great? By great I mean lights out, grind them into the dirt, championship great.

You have discussed in recent months many defensive areas that could use improvement. Your discussions have informed my view and helped me to arrive at the following key areas for improvement:

1: More push from the tackles on pass plays.
2: Albiamiri needs to be better.
3: More disruption from the linebackers
4: Safety play - better pass coverage than Dawkins, someone to replace Dawks disruptive play in the box, Demps needs to improve.
5. Cornerbacks must get more interceptions, particularly those not named Asante Samuel who already can be counted on to get his share.

It seems unlikely that all of these things will simultaneous occur at the maximum potential level. For example if Albiamiri turned into Reggie White that might be enough by itself, but of course is highly unlikely. If all of these areas just showed modest improvement would that be enough?

I am guessing that if we saw medium improvement in push from the tackles, medium improvement in disruptiveness from linebackers and major improvement from Albiamiri - that would do it. I'm not worried about the safeties because I think that Sean Jones has already shown that he can handle the job and be disruptive even if Demps is not yet ready.

What do you see as those combinations of key areas where we might need modest, medium or major improvement that would move the Eagles defense into greatness? Or perhaps you see one of those areas as key.

June 29, 2009 at 11:46 AM
Adam S. said...

So being a fairly new NFL fan as of 1999(from Canada, we used to not get a lot of coverage here growing up), one thing has always puzzled me and never really went out of my way to find out the answer.

I hear both the Eagles and NY jets refered to as "Gang Green". Which came first and who truly has claim to this nickname?

June 30, 2009 at 12:11 AM
T_S_O_P said...

Tommy, did you ever see that team live?

I went to the American Bowl in 1989 to watch them in a pre-season exhibition season at Wembley versus the Browns. For the 2 series that Randall, Reggie et al played it was amazing as was the atmosphere.

It was after the bizarre draft of Small, Drummond, Hager and Sherman, bizarre in the price paid for Hager. Do you think Buddy had a high opinion of Evans? He'd benched him earlier in his career for the more celebral and entirely pedestrian Mike Reichenbach.

I was so excited to see what Drummond would do (we needed a running game) and what Small would bring, we needed someone opposite Joyner. Alas, as with many of Buddy's highly trumpeted picks, they went nowhere fast, though the final pick came up trumps.

Finally, though it starts with Run D, there has to be some semblence of an effective pass defense. Buddy tran a D that finished dead last in that catagory and only once top half in that catagory. IMO, had Carson had the D in 1989 playoff against the Rams, he would not have left Toast out to dry.

But that was Buddy, easy to love and forgive despite at times some awful coaching. Gibbs owned him, and only 2 remarkable games that you couldn't account for, gave Buddy his 2 of his 3 total wins against him. But so remarkable were those wins, we have all forgotten the losses and increased the legend of Buddy.

June 30, 2009 at 9:14 AM
Anonymous said...

In all fairness, Buddy owned Parcells, who owned Gibbs. They'd still all be beating each other every year if Jimmy Johnson hadn't come along and ruined everything!

June 30, 2009 at 11:02 AM

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