So Since We're Not Getting Rid of Spanuolo

I had a thought this morning while reading this good Les Bowen piece on the Eagles' coordinators at the Senior Bowl.  The part that caught my eye was something Marty Mornhinweg said:

"[The Giants] have so many [blitzes] that you're not going to be able to practice against all of them," said Mornhinweg, who added that it is quite possible to spend the week preparing for blitzes the Giants don't end up using against you. "They can really put some heat on . . . it's difficult to try to prepare for that much," even with the extra week between the conference championships and the Super Bowl.

"What happens, if you try to prepare for that much, then you put your signal-callers [the quarterback and the center, who makes the blocking calls at the line], in a position where they start seeing ghosts" - overthinking and seeing extra wrinkles that aren't there.

I think Marty may have revealed a bit more about why the Eagles struggled against the Giants this year that he meant to with that statement.  You know how Andy is always saying he needs to put his guys in a "bit better position to make plays"?  Well it's the coaches' job to counter-scheme for things like the Giants' blitz packages.  And if they're not figuring out a way to break down things so that their players can make the right calls, then the execution isn't going to be there -- even if the talent is there to match up.

Now I'm not bagging on Marty for the job he did this year.  Everyone in the league has struggled blocking the Giants' rush.  But you can be certain that the offensive coaches are going to spend the next few months moving X's and O's around a white board so that next year things will be different. 

And in mini-camp, when the team is doing some early work putting in packages for division rivals, the Giants are going to be right at the top of the list.  (Kind of like how I imagine the Eagles' screen game has been at the top of New York's list the last couple years, based on how well they now shut that part of our offense down.)

Hey, last year, most of the league struggled to stop the New Orleans' passing game, which basically consisted of:  1) Throw deep to Colston and 2) Throw a LOT of really short passes to cover up the fact that the line is weak and as a whole it's not an overly talented group. 

A lot changes in a year.