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DGR is posted on Scoutsnotebook and the EMB.
* PHI 33, JAX 32 *
Sloppy game, but there was plenty to be happy about. It is always interesting to read other opinions. Dave Spadaro had some thoughts on the game posted. We agreed on some things, but were wildly apart on others. Weird.
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Friday, August 28, 2009
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13 comments:
Yeah Hugh Douglas is an idiot. I do like Herm Edwards though. Kevin Reilly doesnt bother me. I will never forget when Hugh Douglas predicted the Eagles would score 9 points in their game against Detroit when they wore their baby blue and yellow throwbacks. Plus Douglas is always making these lewd comments. Like the bag over Spadaro's head. It's like dude you are 35 years old, enough with the strip-bar talk. And when Assante made that hit on the one yard like they kept saying it was Mikell. I was like dude it was Assante!!!
Also was that helmet-to-helmt. Last year in the Steelers Ravens playoff game a Steeler helmet to helmeted a player really badly but they said it wasn't a penalty. So is helmet-to-helmet legal now?
I am worried about defense. We do not seem to have enough play makers. Demps and Mays are not making big plays and it is not even obvious that they are adequate at their positions.
We did get some turnovers yesterday. Assante Samuel is clearly a play maker and his interception was no coincidence but the other turnovers are not so clear. I was encouraged by the play of the defensive tackles. Mike Patterson, I believe had a sack, that you did not mention and Bunkley seemed to be disruptive. Cole played well.
But the lack of a few more players who can be counted on for big defensive plays and far too many missed tackles has me a bit concerned.
I thought the most painful part of that whole thing was the broadcast team. They still have absolutely no chemistry, are talking over one another constantly, have long awkward pauses where no one says anything. The analysis is shoddy at best like when Hugh is constantly saying that Jacksonville has found something with JP, despite the fact that JP can't pick up 3 blitzers at the same time. I only noticed 1 play where JP probably picked up the wrong guy, turning inside to double team someone instead of outside to a blitzer.
Herm Edwards is just painful to listen to imo, I would never want him to be the head coach of my team. He's an excuse man. Whenever a play doesn't work its because the other team did something to stop you, not because you didn't execute. When the other team completes a play on you its because of some mitigating factor, not that you screwed up or are just not playing well. And the constant harping on penalties just seems like beating a horse to death with the obvious.
I did notice that Maclin was playing a little less aggressively after taking that shot, though I'm not sure whether thats because he was hurting or whether he really was rattled by that hit. Either way he needs to shake that off and keep the effort at 100%.
Jason Avant is the man imo we need to get him involved more on all 3 downs, he just knows how to get open.
Vick not not especially impress me, he had one good throw to Baskett (damn he has an arm) but our more wildcat/option offense stuff gained a total of like 7 yards on 4 plays. Are opposing DC's going to stay up at night worrying about our 1-3 yard gainers that we're going to package specially for Vick? Unless we start getting some big plays out of that package no one is going to fear it.
Donovan seemed to feel that the rotation part was screwing up the rhythm, which I thought was a strange thing to say because those kind of rotation plays is exactly why we brought Vick in. If your starting QB says it screws with what they're trying to do to rotate Vick in, then whats the point of having Vick at all? Honestly I can't help but wonder if Donovan just doesn't want to get taken out of the game. Either way Vick didn't make a big impact on the game.
Shady took a small step back this game, I wonder if he's starting to hit that rookie wall. He has gotten a lot of reps. At times I feel like he doesn't turn on his speed enough. He definitely has it because he can outrun guys, but sometimes it seems like he's not going full speed and gets chased down and tackled backside too much. You'll see a play developing and you think "nice gain" and then suddenly a defender will catch him backside and you feel like he definitely should have been able to use his speed to get past. He also started bouncing things wide like you said GE, and we want to avoid that. Hopefully just a bump in the road.
Mays is definitely not playing with confidence and aggression, which is strange because last year he was playing with tremendous confidence and aggression. I wonder if its the difference between worrying about losing your job and worrying about making the team.
I thought Trevor Laws had a tremendous game. He had that beautiful TFL where he exploded through the gap and brought down the RB, and then he had a series of back to back running plays where he blew up his blocker into the backfield and altered the course of the run. He would have had the TFL on one of them but he slipped and fell, he still lunged and got a piece of the RB from behind.
Bunk and Patt are disruptive guys and Laws looks like he's going to be one as well, very nice to have some depth.
I think Donovan wasn't complaining per se, but providing a reason as to why the offense didn't seem in sync during the 1st quarter. The 6 plays Vick ran are just a microcsm of what we'll do in the Regular Season. He knows Vick won't be subbed in every few plays and he just said why.
As for not having enough playmakers on defense...
I can't disagree more! Our safeties were flying around everywhere. Demps needed to wrap up on a few missed tackles, but both he and Mikell were knocking people out. We finished the game with 2 FF's. Asante almost had another. We had 2 INT's - one by a DE!. We got good pressure all game.
What killed us was the Jags taking advantage of our blitz and dumping little screen passes on us while our LB's were upfield in the QB's face.
you disagreed with Spadaro? That is weird?
Man, that Dave is so positive all the time about his opinions on everybody on the team, I swear it's like he's on their payroll or something.
I tried to "follow" the game on my phone with ESPN's gamecast and stopped after this classic sequence:
1st and Goal - McNabb incomplete pass
2nd and Goal - McNabb incomplete pass
3rd and Goal - McNabb incomplete pass
Barforama.
I'm reminded of the old adage "you're never as bad as you thought" and I'm clinging to it.
RE: Vick and his plays - I'm not hitting the panic button yet just because we didn't break one of those plays... just getting him out there in a game situation is a positive step and seeing that arm instantly reminds me that we have a legitimate two-way threat - when he gets his legs back and he's on the field with Westy, linebackers are gonna be crossing their feet all over the field.
How many plays are we going to use Vick a game then? a couple? 6 or 8 or a dozen? I'm not really sure where we're going with it all. The main point I think is the plays where he was doing something other than playing traditional QB (the pass to Baskett) did not result in a single successful play. The assumption I think was that we brought Vick in to do specialized packages that are designed to give you explosive plays. Obviously he's just getting his feet under him, but I have to wonder how much time its going to be before we start to see success with those plays.
Right - but I don't think you should abort the mission because we didn't crack a 50 yarder in the 6 plays he was on the field in a pre-season game... when he hasn't played in two years.
They're experimenting and figuring out how to use him. I think we all were a little confused with his addition (on the football front), but I don't think anyone was realistically expecting him to get 150 yards on four plays, right?
How long do we have before we need him to start producing? He has 1 more preseason game and then he's back to being suspended, possibly until the 6th game of the season. We won't be able to work him in practice wise during that time, so then we're back to trying to work a Vick who has barely played in 2 years into an offense that should be chugging along in midseason form. I didn't want to see 150 yards on 4 plays, but maybe busting one for more than a few yards would have been encouraging.
I don't really like Ray Didinger, but I read an article that summarizes my feelings pretty accurately, link is here:
http://boards.philadelphiaeagles.com/index.php?showtopic=555804
The question becomes, is trying to work Vick into this offense going to make us a better team or a worse team? Take a look at what Ray has to say before you answer that question.
I feel for Mays, I was always worried that celebrally he was not ready for the move at this time. I wonder how Q would have looked had he been moved into the full starting line up in his second year as a pro? I hope he can get over this.
Anyway, are we any clearer at Mike come the Panthers? Do we need to move Omar back there for the last preseason game (if he is healthy)?
What are your thoughts or preferences on the 6 LB spots definately open to the final roster?
My biggest disappointment, especially after the emphasis on it in TC and our problems with it the past couple of years, are the ongoing problems we have in the RZ. Frustrating indeed. I imagine when we finally get our O line back together and Weaver healthy, we'll be running it a lot more down there, but Man! - they can't just keep spinning their wheels down there...
At least we didn't run that stupid rollout play on the goal line again that ALWAYS results in an incomplete pass. I'm not sure hitting shady in the head and having the fumble run back 90 yards for the touchdown is better but... at least it was something different :).
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