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- Mar 25, 2005
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There are going to be a few missed tackles and a few dropped or poorly thrown passes by any team in any game. That was not the primary issue last night. It was the game plan and a stubborn reluctance to make any adjustments within it for what was actually transpiring - like AJ Feeley having the game of his life behind a team that when McNabb fails in leading them we always hear has no receivers. Oddly when AJ or Garcia step behind center receivers emerge...
The problems on defense started with a committment to the pass rush that our front 7 simple could not deliver on. Seymour hasn't been a force since returning, perhaps he is actually a drag. Madden mentioned his knee still isn't right. Don't know if that was simply an observation or something he picked up in the pre game access meetings.
Absent pressure from the front 7 our secondary looks pretty anemic. Asante got two picks on the only two poorly thrown/bad decision passes of the evening. That's what he does. He also got picked on and gave up a lot of yards as did Hobbs and Gay. Hobbs didn't have any picks, but he had a couple of PD's and some very good return yardage. That makes the comparison of he and Samuel apples and oranges - both taste pretty good depanding on your mood. But unless you get some picks a soft zone against a QB having a pretty accurate evening behind good protection will always look anemic.
This was really a game of vanilla vs. vanilla where our D and their O was concerned. They took a page out of our old book and simply took what we gave them. We did nothing exotic to confuse a QB who hasn't started in years...whatever.
On offense we spent a lot of time refusing to take what they would give us, prefering to prove some esoteric point like we can take whatever we want. But between them finding ways to keep our offense off the field and maintaining pressure on it when it was that we seemed bound and determined not to acknowledge throughout the first three quarters the result was a rather disjointed effort that did score (when the zebras didn't intervene) but never found a comfortable rhythm until they made some concessions in the 4th quarter.
I almost had the feeling all night that Bill was determined to force issues in this game. On both sides of the ball. We don't really have the personnel to perform well in some scenarios. But perhaps he believes they should. Our Oline needs blocking help from a TE or a RB under pressure. When we did see a RB last night it was Faulk because in the spread he can block or receive better than Maroney.
Had the Moss TD not been overturned we would have likely built momentum. The Gostkowski miss really killed that. I had the sense all night that Bill was content to remain rigidly committed to the game plan because he believed Philly couldn't maintain that pressure against no huddle and the offense would eventually click and make our defense a moot point. That never really transpired. Instead they made some adjustments late on offense and AJ finally began to press once we regained the lead late.
I think while the players certainly have some things to work on, perhaps the coaching staff has some philosophical stuff to work through too. We certainly have the horses on offense to win any game which is why we are 11-0. They know we can explode or come from behind. But this was certainly the most uncomfortable we've looked across the board all season. The good news is so-called blueprints are only as good as the personnel available to execute them - on both sides in any game. Two teams have made us uncomfortable in two very distinct fashions, but not uncomfortable enough not to win. We will only face one of them potentially from here on out, and they are now missing their pro bowl speed rusher for the duration.
The problems on defense started with a committment to the pass rush that our front 7 simple could not deliver on. Seymour hasn't been a force since returning, perhaps he is actually a drag. Madden mentioned his knee still isn't right. Don't know if that was simply an observation or something he picked up in the pre game access meetings.
Absent pressure from the front 7 our secondary looks pretty anemic. Asante got two picks on the only two poorly thrown/bad decision passes of the evening. That's what he does. He also got picked on and gave up a lot of yards as did Hobbs and Gay. Hobbs didn't have any picks, but he had a couple of PD's and some very good return yardage. That makes the comparison of he and Samuel apples and oranges - both taste pretty good depanding on your mood. But unless you get some picks a soft zone against a QB having a pretty accurate evening behind good protection will always look anemic.
This was really a game of vanilla vs. vanilla where our D and their O was concerned. They took a page out of our old book and simply took what we gave them. We did nothing exotic to confuse a QB who hasn't started in years...whatever.
On offense we spent a lot of time refusing to take what they would give us, prefering to prove some esoteric point like we can take whatever we want. But between them finding ways to keep our offense off the field and maintaining pressure on it when it was that we seemed bound and determined not to acknowledge throughout the first three quarters the result was a rather disjointed effort that did score (when the zebras didn't intervene) but never found a comfortable rhythm until they made some concessions in the 4th quarter.
I almost had the feeling all night that Bill was determined to force issues in this game. On both sides of the ball. We don't really have the personnel to perform well in some scenarios. But perhaps he believes they should. Our Oline needs blocking help from a TE or a RB under pressure. When we did see a RB last night it was Faulk because in the spread he can block or receive better than Maroney.
Had the Moss TD not been overturned we would have likely built momentum. The Gostkowski miss really killed that. I had the sense all night that Bill was content to remain rigidly committed to the game plan because he believed Philly couldn't maintain that pressure against no huddle and the offense would eventually click and make our defense a moot point. That never really transpired. Instead they made some adjustments late on offense and AJ finally began to press once we regained the lead late.
I think while the players certainly have some things to work on, perhaps the coaching staff has some philosophical stuff to work through too. We certainly have the horses on offense to win any game which is why we are 11-0. They know we can explode or come from behind. But this was certainly the most uncomfortable we've looked across the board all season. The good news is so-called blueprints are only as good as the personnel available to execute them - on both sides in any game. Two teams have made us uncomfortable in two very distinct fashions, but not uncomfortable enough not to win. We will only face one of them potentially from here on out, and they are now missing their pro bowl speed rusher for the duration.
