Patriots (Multimedia) Video Rewind

I thought love was only true in fairy tales
Meant for someone else but not for me.
Love was out to get me
That's the way it seemed.
Disappointment haunted all my dreams.

Then I saw her face, now I'm a believer
Not a trace of doubt in my mind.
I'm in love, I'm a believer!
I couldn't leave her if I tried.

First things first, did you know that "I'm a Believer," the Monkees' classic that hit #1 on the U.S. charts in 1967, was actually written and first recorded by Neil Diamond?  It's true.  You learn something new every day.

Anyway, after watching every play of this past Sunday's game ... I'm a believer. 

In A.J. Feeley. 

I'm as shocked as you are.

A.J. made four bad decisions in this game.  There were the three interceptions, as well another floaty little out pass to Reggie Brown that could have been picked.  All bad choices.

Beyond that though ... I mean ... the guy was good.  Really, really good. 

In fact, he was so good, I'm calling it right now.  A.J. Feeley is going to start against the Seahawks this weekend.  Oh sure, they'll say it's because McNabb isn't fully healthy, but I think everyone understands how the "health" thing works in football.  If your backups are stiffs (Hi LJ!) then it's all, "are you hurt, son, or are you injured?"  If the guy behind you can play, then the coaching staff is a lot more likely to take the "why don't you rest up and make sure you get fully healthy" approach. 

A.J. proved Sunday night he could play.

Now, none of this is intended to disparage Donovan McNabb.  My position on his skills as a QB is well established and frankly I'm tired of the debate.  It's like being stuck at a party where some people just want to argue about abortion when there are far more interesting and fertile areas of potential discussion.  It's time to move on.

However, for obvious reasons I focused closely on A.J.'s performance during the game and came away with a number of observations.

First of all, I tracked the placement of Feeley's throws.  I wanted to see if some of the success of the offense could be attributed to his more consistently putting the ball on the money.  Of course, since I've never tracked that before, I have no basis for comparison, but here are the numbers:

Feeley was on fire on the first half.  Of his first 20 throws, I've got 13 of them right on the money (and I graded pretty strictly).  He was less accurate in the second half, but his overall numbers still seemed to me to be pretty impressive.

Two areas where his accuracy came into play were swing passes to Westbrook and crossing patterns to other folks.  In both those areas he seemed to throw nice balls in good position for running-after-catch yardage. 

It's also worth pointing out that 28.5 percent of his throws were either bad misses or to the wrong team.  That's more than one in four.

The last column, labeled "tight spot," were throws he attempted where I don't think Donovan would have pulled the trigger (one was iffy).  He completed five of those six attempts.  Three went for touchdowns.

And this is a case where the numbers don't really tell the whole story, so let's look at some specific plays, starting with the bad first interception he threw to Asante Samuel.  The interesting thing about this play isn't the pass, but the problems with the blitz pickup:

Even with the benefit of replay, the announcers aren't always right.

Now let's take a look at a play with a happier outcome.  This is the touchdown pass to Greg Lewis.  I don't have time to narrate all these things if I want to get any sleep tonight, but check out the way A.J.:

• Recognized the safety blitz;
• Exploited the mismatch by bringing Lewis in motion, inside Curtis;
• Realized there was now no safety in the middle of the field and he could afford to loft the ball back there; and,
• Threw a perfect ball to Lewis, slightly to the outside shoulder away from coverage, for the TD.

Start to finish, that was a hell of a play.

The second Lewis touchdown was an even better throw.  No video, but he recognized the coverage, fit the ball into a tight window and put it exactly where it needed to be by recognizing that there was no safety help in the middle of the field.  My notes for the play read: "Unbelievable."  Man, what a throw.

Other points I noted:

• Feeley made a nice play buying time with his legs and scrambling to the outside before finding Jason Avant for a 21-yard gain at almost the exact same time Madden was explaining to us how Feeley was pretty much a stationary target in the pocket, unlike McNabb.  Good timing, sir.
• On the fourth-and-one QB sneak, New England didn't line anyone up over the center.  That allowed the Eagles to double the player standing over Andrews and Feeley just fell forward through that gap.  Herremans made a nice block on the other side to give him a bit more room to squeeze through, too.
• On the play following the successful onsides kick, when A.J. slipped and was sacked, I'm not sure the slip mattered that much.  Tra Thomas was badly beaten on the play by a blitzing linebacker who might have gotten to Feeley before he could have gotten rid of the ball anyway.
• The flip pass to Schobel when the Patriots came with an all-out blitz was so ridiculously pretty.  A.J. really seemed to know where the coverage was all game, other than the bad INT to Curtis.
• On the touchdown to Reggie Brown, A.J. (again) made an incredible throw into a tight space.  However, he missed L.J. breaking free running an out, which would have been a much easier pitch and catch for the TD.
• At the 12:20 mark of the fourth quarter, Feeley underthrew Curtis on a second-and-eight play where he had his man beaten, allowing the safety to get back into the play.  If he makes a better throw, that's probably a touchdown there and the Eagles are up 35-24.

The last point I want to cover in the Feeley section is the killer interception to Curtis.  It's clear on TV that A.J. is fired up about the play call in the huddle, he dropped back and looked only to Curtis, and he threw it even though the Patriots were in the perfect coverage for the play and Samuel didn't bite on the fake.  Bash the play call all you like, but watch it again and you'll see that L.J. Smith was running wide open across the middle of the field for the entirety of that play.  All A.J. has to do is check it down, dump it off to LJ and be happy with his 10-yard gain.  That one was totally on him, not the coaches.

- - - - - -

On the defensive side of the ball, things were a little less entertaining than I expected.  The biggest problem the Eagles had against the Patriots was Donte Stallworth.

Yep, Donte Stallworth.

And this isn't one of those things where we're just looking for any excuse to bash the organization for not keeping him.  It's true.

Think about how the Eagles have played their nickel coverage all season.  When the third cornerback comes in, Sheldon Brown typically moves in to cover the slot, while James or Hanson plays on the outside.  However, against the Patriots, Johnson chose not to pull his second-best CB off of Stallworth.  Clearly, with all the attention Moss was getting on the other side, he was worried about a possible mismatch between Joselio and Donte. 

What that meant was that Sheldon wasn't available to play his usual inside spot -- where he would presumably have done a much better job handling Wes Welker than any of the folks who actually did match up against him. 

A butterfly flaps his wings in Shanghai and...

As for the rest of the defense, it really was a tale of two halves.  In the first half, Johnson stuck with the brand spanking new 3-3-5 look that gave Brady so many fits.  In the second half -- perhaps anticipating a number of NE adjustments -- he switched mostly to his usual 4-3 scheme (or at least a 4-2-5 as they still spent a lot of time in nickel).

We all noticed Gocong putting his hand on the ground and rushing the passer in the first half, but one thing I didn't see during the game was just how often Trent Cole and Juqua Thomas were dropping into coverage from their DE spots in the 4-3.  Johnson really used those three guys as almost outside 3-4 linebackers throughout the game, and it's worth pondering whether this move presages a shift in philosophy next year once they cut the cord with Kearse.

Johnson blitzed a lot in this game.  I didn't keep exact numbers because I was tracking too many other things, but I counted five, six and even seven (!) pass rushers at various times in the game.  I really liked the read-blitz thing he had his guys do early.  Someone like Gocong would blitz, but then if the running back released, he'd slam on the breaks and cover the RB man-to-man.  This was a great way to handle the Pats' shifting block schemes.  If they went max-protect, you had an extra guy coming, but if they instead released him, you didn't have to worry about him burning you with the dump-off.  I liked it. 

As for Thomas, check out this play:

3-12-PHI 46

(6:13) (Shotgun) 12-T.Brady pass short right to 83-W.Welker to PHI 4 for 42 yards (75-J.Thomas).

Um, yeah, you read that right -- a 42-yard gain by Welker with a tackle made by a defensive end.  Check it out:

No one can say these guys don't hustle.

With Trent Cole, I watched him carefully early on to see if a) he was getting extra attention and b) the 3-3 or 3-4 look was what stopped him from rushing the passer.  The answer to both questions is pretty much no.  He was doubled at times, but only when the Eagles rushed three and there were spare blockers.  And even in the three-man line, the Eagles lined him up wide and told him to rush the QB.  He wasn't pulled inside like a traditional 3-4 defensive end would be.

As for Gocong, he seemed to like playing up on the line of scrimmage, although I think he actually got fewer snaps than he has the last couple weeks.  When the Eagles went to the four man line, they were frequently in nickel, for Moss/Welker-related reasons.  That kept Gocong on the bench for a lot of the second half. 

This game also made clear once again that you can't blitz Gocong the long way round.  He's a good pass rusher for a linebacker, but he's not super-fast.  If he's not taking a straight path to the quarterback, the ball's going to be gone before he gets there.

Other defense-related notes:

• J.R. Reed looks like a player.  He hits well and he appears to be the fastest safety we have when it comes to breaking on the ball.  I am stupendously impressed with where he is right now.
• With that said, Reed really needed to come up with that interception he dropped.  Dawkins could have saved a hypothetical three points as well (Gostkowksi missed the field goal) if he'd come up with a ball in the end zone.  I wish these guys could catch.
• I still don't understand why Sheldon Brown stopped running on that touchdown Gaffney had at the end of the half.  He had great coverage and then just ... gave up. 
• Dawkins looks really slow these days.
• At one point in the fourth quarter, the Pats called three straight screens.  The last one was an audible, but I could almost hear Belicheat thinking, "see, we don't need your signals to call this crap."
• On the Patriots' last third-down conversion that really sealed the Eagles' fate, Takeo Spikes was way, way too slow coming out of his pre-snap blitz bluff to cover the slot receiver.  The pitch and catch could not have been easier.

- - - - - -

Four points on special teams.

1)  I have no idea how the guy standing directly over the ball could ever possibly be drawn offsides on a punt.  You're lucky your status as the back-up center precludes Andy Reid from benching your butt next week, kid.

2)  The bad punt by Rocca in the fourth quarter started with a bad snap.  Sav did a good job scooping it up, but it clearly threw off his rhythm.  It looked on television like he dropped the ball too far from his body and caught it more with his toes than his foot.  Live and learn for the rookie.

3)  How could the Patriots' special teams not be ready for the "surprise" onsides kick?  They were in no position to make a play there.

4)  Finally, I think after this week we might finally have a better sense of what's wrong with the kick return team.  Check out these two plays during the Pats game.  On the first one, all four blockers in front of Reed -- including the "wall" and his lead blocker -- completely whiff on the guys they're supposed to be blocking.  On the second, the wall guys do a great job blocking the second wave of defenders, after they let the first wave go through untouched.  I'll be the first to admit I don't know jack about coaching special teams, but somehow, none of this seems right to me: