Iggles Blog - Philadelphia Eagles Blog

A Word About Westbrook

He's the MVP of the team, but when there are three guys ahead of you in both rushing yards and yards-from-scrimmage, I think it's pretty hard to argue you got stiffed.

Congrats to Dawk, Lito and the Big Kid.

So What Does It All Mean?

One month ago today, I wrote off the 2006 Philadelphia Eagles.  The team was coming off a listless loss to the Tennessee Titans and our slim hopes that McNabb might have "just" a minor knee injury were dashed by the news that he was done for the season with a torn ACL. 

Since that time, you know the story.  Jeff Garcia has done an excellent job as McNabb's replacement and the rest of the team has stepped up just enough to keep the Eagles in excellent position in this year's mediocre NFC.  The question now is: what does it all mean?

Believe me, I'm on board the playoff push bandwagon.  For the first time in a loooong time, it's really fun watching this Eagles team.  I look forward to riding this wave as long as possible.

Realistically, however, it's hard to see this season ending with Brian Dawkins clutching the Lombardi Trophy under a shower of confetti.  Which means I'm already starting to think about 2007 and how the events of this season will affect the coming months.

The biggest thing I see is that the Eagles are again learning how to win ballgames.  You can call it luck if you want, but I see a team that found ways to lose early on, but is now finding ways to win.  Some examples from two key games:

• Giants I - Michael Lewis failing to retrieve a fumble that turned into a Giants' touchdown
• Giants II - Lito cannily staying inbounds and snatching the second fumble Dawkins forced
• Giants I - Stallworth drops third-down catch that could have sealed the game
• Giants II - LJ bobbles but hangs onto a huuuuge fourth-quarter completion down the middle of the field
• Giants I - Defense can't make a stop either in the fourth quarter or in overtime against the mistake-prone Eli Manning
• Giants II - Defense comes up big, causing turnovers and forcing a field goal after the offense puts them in a terrible position down near their own end zone

The second major development in recent weeks has been the evolution of the offense -- namely, the mindset shift in the playcalling.  It's patently obvious that the coaches have changed their approach.  They're much more conservative in situations like second-and-10.  They give Westbrook as many touches as possible.  And they are unavoidably more judicious in what they ask of the quarterback.

Will this continue next year?  We'll see.  One early indicator will be if the Eagles draft/acquire a big running back and blocking tight end in the early part of the offseason.   

Which bring us to the next point I see, which is that this season has been very useful from a personnel evaluation standpoint, particularly this little bump at the end, which has blown away some of the "they're all bums" fog.  We now have a much better idea of what the real needs are.

Clearly, the Eagles are set at a lot of positions.  The offensive line has gotten even better as the season has progressed, and there are guys one rung down who should be ready to challenge for playing time in the off-season.  The offensive skill position players have performed well, but if we don't bring back Stallworth we will need to address that hole.  Coming back will be Garcia's decision, but even if he goes we still have AJ.

On the other side of the ball, the defensive line is a bit more of a puzzle.  Right now, the Eagles have five guys (Kearse, Howard, Cole, Patterson and Bunkley) who are all signed to major contracts.  Other than potentially bringing in specialized run-stuffer, it's hard to see much change happening here.  Cornerback is reasonably established, but there are major holes at linebacker and safety (once Lewis leaves).

Which is GREAT. 

The way things are shaping up, the Eagles are looking at a draft pick in the low 20s.  That's a perfect position for drafting an impact linebacker or safety.  If we want to, we should be able to pick up a guy who can immediately contribute.   

The final issue sounds dumb, but it really isn't.  Eagles' fans need a reason to believe next year.  A weak 6-10 finish with dissension in the locker room and a couple of humiliating division losses would have made for an awful summer in Philadelphia.  The fire Reid crowd would have picked up some converts.  The players would have avoided going out where they might run into angry fans.  The 610 guys would have been practically orgasmic with all the good material they would have to work with.

A strong finish changes all that.  It keeps the venom from building up too much and it ensures that next year's home opener won't be the start of an all-out boo-fest that poisons the season.

The road to Glendale starts right here.

(Glendale?)

A Quick Aside

As veterans of the Mike Mamula debacle, Philly natives could appreciate what fans of the Houston Texans went through after their team passed on both Reggie Bush and Vince Young to select N.C. State defensive end Mario Williams with the first overall pick in this year's draft.

Of course, as always happens in this instant history sports culture of ours, it only took the flimsiest of excuses for some people to suggest that the Texans had actually made the right choice.  And so, as a public service, I provide this rookie year comparison:

Mario Williams - 14 games, 40 tackles, 4.5 sacks
Mike Mamula - 14 games, 55 tackles, 5.5 sacks

Mario has a couple more games to try to pass Mamula's numbers (since Mike missed a couple games with injuries his first year), but well, Houston we feel your pain.

At least it's not like the other guys are having any success.

Should / Will Recap

Before last week's game I made predictions for what the Eagles and Giants should/would do against each other.  Let's see how I did.

The Giants SHOULD pretend Eli Manning is a rookie who needs to be protected /
The Giants WILL ... have Eli throw far more often than he should, and Coughlin will repeat the mistake made by both the Panthers and the Redskins

The Giants rushed only 22 times, against 40 passes.  Eli had 282 yards passing, but also threw two killer interceptions.  The Eagles did a much better job on run defense this week, but they still gave up 4.0 yards per carry and two rushing TDs.  The Brandon Jacobs ankle injury might have hurt the Giants plans, but still, I'm giving myself full credit for this one.

The Eagles SHOULD flip their defensive ends this game /
The Eagles WILL keep things as they are, but Juqua Thomas will have a nice day playing on the right side as he takes some of Darren Howard's snaps

If only I had trusted my gut.  The Eagles did in fact put Trent Cole on the right side, where he made life miserable for Giants backup LT Bob Whitfield.  He didn't have a great stat day, but he was more active than he had been in weeks, and the Giants were forced to give Whitfield some help to keep up with him.  Half-right on this one.

The Giants SHOULD focus on taking away the Eagles' big plays /
The Giants WILL make stopping Brian Westbrook their number one priority

If the Giants were focused on stopping Westbrook, they sure didn't do very well with it.  For the most part, it did indeed look like the Giants were worried about the wide receivers, and they did a decent job containing them, right up until that beautiful 28-yard touchdown pass to Reggie Brown late in the fourth quarter.  Here's our old buddy Carlos Emmons' take on the day:

"We were planning on stopping the run. They caught us in some dime and nickel packages. It was a good game plan by them."

So they were "planning" to stop the run (we say that every week), but they got caught out with some pass-oriented defenses.  Sounds like a "prevent" philosophy to me, and since the Giants did a lousy job keeping down Westbrook and a pretty good job taking away the home run, I'm going with half credit again. 

The Eagles SHOULD start Brodrick Bunkley /
The Eagles WILL start Darwin Walker 

Weak half-credit on this one.  Walker started, but he played much better than he has recently.  Bunkley finally got some snaps, including in a package where Walker slid out to end to help stop the run.  In fact, I think I'll have to give myself zero points here, since Walker did an OK job.

Finally, the Giants SHOULD win this game /
But the Eagles WILL win ... because our coaches are better, our quarterback is much more clutch, and because you should never, ever, anger Mr. Trotter.

Pretty much sums it up.  Coughlin is doing his best to lose his job (unfortunately), Garcia is Mr. Clutch, and Antonio Pierce, well, this is a fun read.  Full credit.

----------------------

Final score:  Six out of 10.  Not an All-Pro performance, but not too shabby. 

Better than last time around, at any rate.  Ahem.

Creativity in the Running Game

The Eagles under Andy Reid have long had one of the league's most creative passing attacks.  It's more than just the bombs-away trickery; it's also the bread-and-butter stuff, like the way he gets favorable match-ups for Westbrook or the dizzying array of plays he had to spring Terrell Owens back when he was the offensive focal point.  Or even the way he uses guys like Greg Lewis (who may be the league's best fourth wide receiver, seriously) as a change-of-pace for the rest of the offense. 

One thing I've never understood, however, was why that same creativity never carried over into the rushing attack.  The Eagles' running game has always seemed hopelessly simplistic to me.  They switch a few things up, but for the most part it seemed like we just ran a steady mix of zone right, zone left and figured we would take what we could get from it. 

I ran across a possible explanation for this last week, in a column by SI's Dr. Z about the resurgence of the fullback dive in the pro game.  For some reason, that piece led me to a story Z had written earlier in the season about how teams truly establish consistent running games.  Somehow I had missed it back in September. 

At any rate, one thing he wrote stuck with me:

You don't find the precision running games anymore, probably because in the free-agency era, offensive lines aren't together year after year like they used to be. I loved the intricate timing of the Giants' great power toss that carried them to their first Super Bowl victory in the 1986 season.

Joe Morris carrying behind the vicious down-blocks of Mark Bavaro, with Chris Godfrey pulling and Maurice Carthon leading. Man, it was beautiful. Then one day it was gone. I asked Bill Parcells about it.

"Yeah, I hated to lose it, too," he said. "But you can't coach it anymore. It takes up too much of your practice time."

Does that explain the Eagles' approach to the running game?  Is it partially a matter of practice time?  Do all the bells 'n' whistles in the passing game mean that the Eagles just have not committed to developing a really creative rushing attack?

Unfortunately, because Coach Reid still doesn't return my phone calls, we'll have to leave that issue at the status of unresolved.  But it's an interesting theory.

Here's the thing, though.  The Eagles are suddenly losing some of the vanilla in their running game. 

Take yesterday's game as an example.  When was the last time you saw that kind of variety in the backfield?  We had fake handoffs, fake pitches and fake end arounds.  They had a nifty little left-side trap on a quick hitter that went for a big gain.  They even had Runyan pulling around to the left-side from his right tackle position, burying the first guy in the hole and then continuing on to blow up the linebacker.

Where is this coming from?  Is it Marty?  Is it just Reid finally putting more emphasis on it?  Is it a recognition that we need to rely more on the run because we don't have McNabb?  Is some of it the better athletes on our offensive line?  Or is it even that maybe Garcia is a bit better ball handler and the coaches are now putting things in that he's done before in previous stops?   

Whatever the reason, it's a welcome development.  It gives other teams more to prepare for, and it increases the variety of ways Westbrook (and Buckhalter) can challenge opponents.

Now hopefully they have even more tricks up their sleeves for Monday night.   

Eagles / Giants Game Recap

The Eagles are dead.  Long live the Eagles!

I understand that as an Eagles fan, I am contractually obligated to hate the Cowboys over all others, but there's something about the Giants that I absolutely despise.  It's partly because they always use to beat us.  It's partly because they have the most arrogant fans in the NFL.  And it's partly because they're never as good as they think they are.

But mostly, it's because of their players.  Shockey.  Burress.  That pipsqueak Manning.  I can't stand any of them.  And you know what?  I don't think the Eagles can either. 

And that emotion might just be what carried the day today.

How else to explain a defense that couldn't stop Ladell Friggin Betts or Travis Bleepin Henry suddenly stepping up and shutting down the powerful combination of Tiki Barber and Brandon Jacobs?  How else to explain overcoming blatantly one-sided officiating and any number of self-inflicted wounds?

It's like they said to themselves, "Yeah, we might get blown off the ball by the Titans/Colts/Panthers/Redskins, but there's no way in hell you jerks from New Jersey are going to push us around."

The Eagles had any number of chances today to throw in the towel, but they kept fighting, the defense kept coming up with big plays, and Jeff Garcia and Brian Westbrook kept doing just enough to keep the offense moving for what was the biggest win this franchise has had in a couple of years (yes, even bigger than the Cowboys).

--------------------------------

One final note.  This Eagles offensive line is the true backbone of this team.  Not to take anything away from all the other guys, but those five men are truly a dominating unit.  Over the next couple days, when we're passing out gold stars to all the guys who stepped up and made plays today, let's remember the big fellas who make everything happen up front.

The Michael Jordan Defense

When Michael Jordan first came into the NBA, teams tried two different approaches for dealing with this new, unstoppable offensive force.  The first tactic was to throw everything they had into slowing him down.  Double teams, triple teams, mushy almost-zones, constantly rotating fresh bodies, anything.  They figured if they could stop Jordan, they would win.

The second approach was to play Jordan straight up and focus on taking away the other Bulls.  The theory was that Jordan might score 70, but if you held the rest of the team to 25, you could still win.  Teams like the Detroit Pistons were successful beating Jordan-led teams for years with this approach, until Michael got better at playing within an offensive system and finding his teammates when he was double-teamed.

I think teams facing the Eagles right now are sort of in the same situation.  There's a lot of talent on this offense, but the guy who makes it all go is clearly Brian Westbrook.  Other teams know this, so opposing coaches spend a lot of time scheming for ways to shut him down -- or at least slow him up. 

The funny thing is, I think the best way to stop this Eagles offense might be to give 'em the old Michael Jordan defense.  Don't sell out trying to stop Westbrook, just play a nice, careful defense that focuses on good tackling and keeping him in front of you.  Give him his 150 all-purpose yards, but don't let any of his teammates (Stallworth and Brown, most notably) be the ones who beat you. 

This is the approach the Colts took, and it worked pretty well.  Since that point, the Eagles' offense has looked pretty good.  We'll see what the Giants do today. 

Good News and Bad News About Bunkley

There's been a fair amount of Bunkley noise this week emanating from the Eagles organization.  Based on a few comments from Jim Johnson and others, it's seemed pretty clear that this will be the game where Bunk gets some more time.

The Inquirer had this to say today:

Defensive coordinator Jim Johnson raised the possibility of first-round rookie Brodrick Bunkley getting more than just a couple of snaps tomorrow. It seems possible that with four of their previous six opponents having rushed for more than 200 yards, and defensive end Darren Howard obviously worn down by injuries, the Birds will have Darwin Walker move over to end, as he has done from time to time in past seasons, opening up more playing time for Bunkley.

"I'm hoping," Bunkley said yesterday. "It looks like I'll finally get a chance to play some 'nickel,' get in on some passing downs. I want to just get into a rhythm. Once that happens, I can feel more confident about what's going on."

Ok, so I'm not going to look a gift horse in the mouth here.  But, um, hasn't the bigger problem recently been the run defense? 

Top 10 Reasons Jim Johnson Stopped Rotating His Defensive Linemen

1. Because we forced Bunkley to sign a six-year deal and by God we're not going to start wearing him out right away...

2. Because JJ's pissed at Heckert for not bringing in any decent linebackers and wants to show him up...

3. Because JJ likes Marty and it makes the OC look like a better coach in comparison...

4. Because he heard all the fans say they wanted to run the ball more and he didn't realize we meant the Eagles...

5. Because he's laying the groundwork for 2007 Comeback Coach of the Year...

6. Because to win in the NFL you need to do two things: run the ball effectively ... and he always forgets the other one...

7. Because every time a young defensive lineman gets some playing time we immediately sign him to a huge extension and he's tired of cutting into Lurie's Christmas bonuses...

8. Because these guys aren't under-sized, they're just "differently-proportioned." And you need to work on your prejudices...

9. Because Joselio Hansen did a bit better job in practice this we-- oh wait...

10. And finally, because the only true, big-bottomed run-stuffer the Eagles have is Andy Reid, and he refuses to do what's best for the team...

Time to Pull Out All the Stops

Eagles / Giants Game Preview

One of the perils of writing something the night before, but waiting to post it until the next day, is that by the time you go live, someone else might have "stolen" your idea.  And so it is today, when I was beaten to the punch by not one, but two Philly columnists (of the compensated variety) who argued that it is time for the Eagles to shift to a more high-risk, high-reward strategic mindset.

And so it goes.

If I were feeling more peevish about the whole thing, I might consider flipping my argument around and suggesting that what the Eagles really need to do is trot out a conservative, ball-control offense and a bend-but-don't-break defense that gives Garcia a chance to win this thing in the fourth quarter.  But, well, I don't think that's the case and, besides, that's sort of been done too.

So let's instead just reorganize things a bit and play another round of the Should/Will Game.  Here we go:

The Giants SHOULD pretend Eli Manning is a rookie who needs to be protected.  That would mean calling either running plays or screens to Tiki/Jacobs on 75 percent of their first-half plays.

The Giants WILL realize that Shockey and Burress would flip out with that gameplan.  Meaning Eli will throw far more often than he should, and Coughlin will repeat the mistake made by both the Panthers and the Redskins.  When in doubt against the Eagles, just run the ball.

The Eagles SHOULD flip their defensive ends this game.  Trent Cole seems to have worn down as the season has progressed, but let's see what the kid can do against the decrepit Bob Whitfield, who is filling in for the injured LT Luke Petitgout.  Best case scenario, Cole picks up three sacks and terrorizes Manning.  Second-best, the Giants have to commit Shockey and Tiki to help on Cole, taking those two explosive weapons out of the offense on some plays.

The Eagles WILL keep things as they are.  But Juqua Thomas will have a nice day playing on the right side as he takes some of Darren Howard's snaps. 

The Giants SHOULD focus on taking away the Eagles' big plays.  At the expense of letting Brian Westbrook have a huge (though non-fatal) afternoon, the Giants should play soft in the secondary and try to take away the quick strikes that have been such an important part of the Eagles offense this year.

The Giants WILL make stopping Brian Westbrook their number one priority.  This will open up the deep passing attack for the Eagles, particularly since the likely absence of Eagles' killer Michael Strahan will cause the Giants to blitz more often to bring pressure, leaving an already weak secondary exposed.

The Eagles SHOULD start Brodrick Bunkley.  I don't know why Darwin Walker can't play the run (injuries, lack of talent, lack of discipline), all I know is that he can't. 

The Eagles WILL start Darwin Walker.  And the Giants will run right at him.  And Walker will again put up no more than token resistance.  And Rayburn and Bunkley will eventually replace him.  And we'll again wonder why the Eagles defense is so bad on opponents' first drives. 

Finally, the Giants SHOULD win this game.  They're at home and the Eagles have no answer to the kind of sustained rushing attack the Giants can bring.

But the Eagles WILL win.  Because our coaches are better, our quarterback is much more clutch, and because you should never, ever, anger Mr. Trotter.

Eagles - 27
Giants - 24