IB Around The Web

Huge game this weekend, and not just for the Eagles, so a couple of sites have asked for some Iggles insight.  The first post is live over at Fan House. 

The most interesting part (I think):

The key, then, seems to be stopping Jacobs behind the line of scrimmage. That's easier said than done, of course, but if he hits the hole unimpeded, he's got too much inertia going to knock him back.

Not to dork out too much on the tactical stuff, but Jacobs provides an interesting and somewhat unique situation, I think. Generally speaking, defenses are afraid to stack too many guys at the line of scrimmage because if the back breaks through, there's no one at the second level to bring him down. The thing with Jacobs, though, is that because he gets so much momentum going and it takes more than one guy to tackle him, you're almost not going to bring him down close to the line of scrimmage anyway, if there's a hole.

So if he's not a speed guy you worry about popping off 60-yard runs, and if your base defense will yield seven-yard gains even if things work out the way you hope, then you might as well jam the line and try to stop him in the backfield before he gets going. You'll lose a few battles that way, but you may rack up enough "no gains" to force the offense to change its play-calling.

Read the rest...