How does Marinelli defend against the Eagles?

Only thing that makes Philly difficult is the hurry up offense which does not allow the defense to make personnel changes. However this has also back fired on Philly at times as their defense has to go right back on the field with little rest when their offense sputters. Given the players at RB they have brought in I would expect to see a lot of running by Philly to help protect Bradford keeping him in good down and distance situation.
 
There are three things that you need to do to have success in stopping the Chip Kelly tempo offense:

  1. Have success on first down. If the Eagles are not ripping off big gains on first down, it is difficult for them to establish the tempo that they want.
  2. Get upfield pressure from the defensive line while maintaining lane discipline. This attack has problems when teams are able to get upfield on them. The key is to maintain lane and gap discipline to eliminate cutbacks.
  3. Play physically. The way that Kelly schemes his running attack, it relies on the opposition being either tired or out of position. If opposing teams play physically with them, it has been shown to limit their success.
 
This eagles team won 10 games last year. Not bad. But I also seem to remember that there were 3 or 4 games that were won in fluke fashion on Special teams and D. So this high power offense won like 7 games. Not overly worried about them honestly. This scheme will not work in the NFL. It's whole premise is to be more athletic and in better shape than the other team. That won't happen in the NFL. The key to stopping this Offensive is the LBers. They must play fundamental gap integrity. Once we stop the run, its all over for them. They don't have the weapons to really compete in the passing game. I wish we had Ro back for this game but the others will have to step up. Having Lee will be huge with his ability to see the play and flow. The SAM backer will have to have a good game though, who ever that is. I look for us to struggle with them on the road in game 2 but we will win in the end I believe.
 
IMO Kelly really only does 3 things with his offense...

1. He gets the defense in a sideline to sideline mentality

then

2. He hits you with a ISO run straight up the middle when he gets you thinking EAST and West

If that doesn't work

3. He'll spam crossing routes to the slot receiver.
 
Hit Bradford any chance you get. Especially when they run the read option; he's fair game because he's no longer considered a QB and is not afforded the protection given to the position.
 
While they don't use him a ton, you can't let Sproles get a lot of one on one stuff with LBs. I don't care how good you think Lee or Hitchens or McClain is or can be. Sproles will eat up any of those guys.

I think Seattle used a lot of nickel last year against them and actually shifted Maxwell over from outside CB to inside slot guy to take Matthews out of the game. They didn't feel Cooper could beat their 3rd CB outside.
 
To me the best way to deal with the Chip Kelly hurry up isn't on defense, its on offense. Control the ball and score. To me the big weakness of the scheme is it makes more possessions for both sides. We should have a better per drive offense then they do, which means their offensive system actually works for us better then it does for them. As far as how to defend it, play smart. Don't be over aggressive chasing the ball and allow his dump off game to make large gains. Stay in your lanes a little longer then you might normally to slow down the zone read part of it. And frankly I think I like our CB match up against their WRs this year. I don't think they have particularity good WRs at the moment. And there's always the very simple way to stop an offense, hit the QB hard repeatedly.
 
I think this is a game where gap and lane control will be one of the most important things. The Cowboys defensive linemen need to get up field in a hurry, but they (along with the linebackers) must maintain gap control. Where Philly has really hurt us the last couple years, was with the cutback lanes. Our DL and LB are hyper-aggressive and tend to over pursue. You can't do that against the Eagles. This is also a game where Wilcox has to hold down the one high coverage look so Church can freelance in the box. Most importantly though, as others have said, it comes down to keeping their offense off the field. We need long, sustained drives. Let our heavies wear down their front seven. Oh and, as always, take care of the ball.
 
Chip Kelly's offense really only runs about 6 or 7 plays from multiple formations. About 3 runs and 4 different passing combinations.

The key is playing your assignment. The weakside DE (whichever side the RB is not lined up, for the purposes of "weak" or "strong" here) should attempt to blow up the QB/RB exchange every time. Everyone else plays their assignments/gaps. DBs keep the WRs in front and don't get caught chasing sideline to sideline.

If you're able to bottle up the read option nonsense, the offense becomes extremely one dimensional and the defense can dictate the pace. Force Bradford to make perfect throws.
 
CATCH17 said:
IMO Kelly really only does 3 things with his offense...

1. He gets the defense in a sideline to sideline mentality

then

2. He hits you with a ISO run straight up the middle when he gets you thinking EAST and West

If that doesn't work

3. He'll spam crossing routes to the slot receiver.
Click to expand...

Throw in the double screens, bubble screens and quick screens, and you nailed it.
 
Doomsday101 said:
true but then with Lee back in the lineup and his ability to make the quick reads those screens will be harder to pull off.
Click to expand...

They'll be harder to get to coming from that weak side though. He'll have a lot of traffic to fight through. I think the nickle corner and Church have to be on their game for us to stop the screens.
 
Base defense DL (Mincey, TC, Hayden, DLaw) with nickel DB sets on 1st and 2nd downs.
Gregory enters on 3rd downs for Hayden, Mincey shifts inside.

It will be harder minus Hardy in the first match up.

If you stop them early and you grind them down with our running attack that porous defense will really be exposed.

Going quickly on offense only works if you have success. I know as I am a Texas Tech/KK fan.

Over the course of a full NFL season Chip has zero real systemic advantage. Like teams running anything exotic that advatatge is very real in the pre-season and the first couple weeks.
 
Doomsday101 said:
true but then with Lee back in the lineup and his ability to make the quick reads those screens will be harder to pull off.
Click to expand...

I'd man up the RB with Sean Lee on every 3rd down BTW. Leave the other LB(Byron Jones has been playing this) responsible for the middle crossing patterns.
 
blindzebra said:
They want to spread you out and run down hill, pressure up the middle kills their scheme.
Click to expand...

From what I know Philly has two average guards. If we get pressure up the middle with either Coleman and Crawford that will slow their offense down.
 
windjc said:
Marinelli likes to rotate his defensive line players into different packages depending on down and distance.

How did he defend against Egirls last year? Who will play when and how this year - especially since our depth at DL is a strength. Will this strength be nullified?
Click to expand...

its not just about defending against the eagles, its about beating them. our offense has to effectively win the TOP, and given their fast pace offense, their defense spends a lot of time on the field. games are won in the 4th quarter, so a gassed up defense is hard to get off the field in the 4th.

also, I think we are built to defend against the eagles. eagles aren't very physical so getting physical with them is key. youhave to keep attacking them on defense and we are deep in DL, so I expect to see a lot of DL rotation and attacking them. I don't like their WR make up right now, although they are deep at RB.

last year teams that got physical with the eagles and punched them hard, beat them up. that's typical of Kelly teams. even his Oregon teams were the same way. winning in the NFL needs a 4 wheel drive car, as its a long haul and each game is long onto its own. Eagles are more like a sports car, that may not be able to handle the long tough ride.
 
Sam Bradford. That is how you defend against the eagles or any other team. Get after that asss.

Play physical football. As bad as the team was last year, they were the only team to win all rode games. They fought, hard.

Play smart. Don't be stupid, pay attention. Don't get hurt unless they try and hurt you.

(stupid cowboy fans)
 
windjc said:
Marinelli likes to rotate his defensive line players into different packages depending on down and distance.

How did he defend against Egirls last year? Who will play when and how this year - especially since our depth at DL is a strength. Will this strength be nullified?
Click to expand...

Interesting article on Grantland about Gary Patterson's defense at TCU and how he coaches against spread/hurry-up offenses:


https://grantland.com/features/hard-knocks-playing-defense-with-tcus-gary-patterson/
 
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