Boys running game and pass rush last night

[moe1969]

We pulled out a game last night that we had no business winning, and it's about time one of those go our way. So, I am pumped today and hopefully that was the last nail in the coffin for the Iggles because I certainly wouldn't want to see them in the playoffs (T.O. or no T.O)

While I am thrilled with the win, I do have a couple of concerns from last night. First, our pash rush was virtually non-existant against an O-Line that included a starting center that was on the Practice Squad last week. I know Ellis came up with a big sack at the end of the game but at that point McNabb could barely move, let alone scramble. I love D. Ware's potential but until he develops some pass rush "counter-moves" he is nothing but a speed rusher that can be completely shut down by average offensive tackles. Glover, Spears and Canty really didn't get any pressure either. The run defense was horrendous but I will write that off to gameplanning because Dallas looked completely caught off guard with the amount of running from the Iggles.

My other concern is the lack of a running game. We seem to be able to establish the run against lesser opponents but when we really need to run versus a quality team, we just cannot grind out yards, and first downs, like the days of Emmit etc. Also thought the offensive game plan was WAY too conservative last night as well.

Overall, great win and I think we have the team to make a real run this year with a little luck and good health. We certainly cannot affort to lose Anthony Henry for any period of time.

 

[Mike 1967]

We pulled out a game last night that we had no business winning, and it's about time one of those go our way. So, I am pumped today and hopefully that was the last nail in the coffin for the Iggles because I certainly wouldn't want to see them in the playoffs (T.O. or no T.O)

While I am thrilled with the win, I do have a couple of concerns from last night. First, our pash rush was virtually non-existant against an O-Line that included a starting center that was on the Practice Squad last week. I know Ellis came up with a big sack at the end of the game but at that point McNabb could barely move, let alone scramble. I love D. Ware's potential but until he develops some pass rush "counter-moves" he is nothing but a speed rusher that can be completely shut down by average offensive tackles. Glover, Spears and Canty really didn't get any pressure either. The run defense was horrendous but I will write that off to gameplanning because Dallas looked completely caught off guard with the amount of running from the Iggles.

My other concern is the lack of a running game. We seem to be able to establish the run against lesser opponents but when we really need to run versus a quality team, we just cannot grind out yards, and first downs, like the days of Emmit etc. Also thought the offensive game plan was WAY too conservative last night as well.

Overall, great win and I think we have the team to make a real run this year with a little luck and good health. We certainly cannot affort to lose Anthony Henry for any period of time.

I have the same concerns.

I'm starting to come to the conclusion that Trotter had a massive game last night. The guy can be a beast...and he appeared to be highly motivated last night.

On the otherside of the ball. I think that that new iggles center. The guy weighed 380 lbs ??? On every running play he was just falling over to the left or right..or straight forward. The guy was a mountain.

I think they "out muscled" our nose guard all night.

 

[BARRYRAY]

Do you ever have the feeling in a game that they are stealing our plays, honestly I felt that last night, some of those plays they just flat saw them coming before we ran them. I honestly didn't think we put any new wrinkles in during the bye week offensively/defensively, thought we would have something new, you know the NFL is a constantly evolving week to week, even half to half thing, and I thought the Eagles coaching was great even if they didn't win. An example was that play the TE goes in motion and Shanle goes for nachos or was watching the cheerleaders or something...

 

[CowboyManDan]

I have the same concerns.
On the otherside of the ball. I think that that new iggles center. The guy weighed 380 lbs ??? On every running play he was just falling over to the left or right..or straight forward. The guy was a mountain.

I think they "out muscled" our nose guard all night.

I agree, but I don't understand how their new center was able to outplay Fergy and Glover. Fergy is a big dude who should be able to goe head to head with anyone, especially when Fergy has much more experience. I'm concerned about Fergy, and think we overpaid for him. Since Glover is smaller I could see him getting out muscled, but I expected to see him use his speed to get around him more. Im just shocked how our defnesive line got outplayed so bad....even with our rotation which should keep them fresh. You almost start to think our team isn't that well conditioned or something, but you wouldn't think Parcells would let that happen.

 

[Mike 1967]

I agree, but I don't understand how their new center was able to outplay Fergy and Glover. Fergy is a big dude who should be able to goe head to head with anyone, especially when Fergy has much more experience. I'm concerned about Fergy, and think we overpaid for him. Since Glover is smaller I could see him getting out muscled, but I expected to see him use his speed to get around him more. Im just shocked how our defnesive line got outplayed so bad....even with our rotation which should keep them fresh. You almost start to think our team isn't that well conditioned or something, but you wouldn't think Parcells would let that happen.

Yep..it was troubling

It is times like this that I would like to be a fly on the wall at the ranch. I'm sure Parcells has a very good opinion regarding the problem.

We will have to read the tea leaves (next press conference) and see if we can decipher the problem.

 

[ddh33]

The Eagles run defense is dominant at home. There's no shame in not being able to rack up the yards against them. Dallas still managed to get their attempts. That's a big key.

As for the defense, I honestly thought that Dallas was just flat out off balance. The Eagles ran more last night than they had all season. I also think there was a big case of a caged tiger last night - like the Raiders game. The Eagles were fired up and in a must win. They played with more passion than I've seen. But Dallas weathered the storm. For that reason, I'm trying to stay more optimistic.

 

[Nors]

They manhandled our DT's at point of contact.
We had no real pass pressure.

That concerns me some.

Running game? We are so damn predictable.

 

[ABQCOWBOY]

They manhandled our DT's at point of contact.
We had no real pass pressure.

That concerns me some.

Running game? We are so damn predictable.

34 is vulnerable to this blocking scheme. I wonder how many snaps Ferguson got last night. Typically, he doesn't get handled that way. We will have to see if this continues in the future.

Also, I thought that Philly's Center played pretty damn well, aside from the QB/Center exchange issue. How the hell did this guy last on the practice squad for so long? We could have used a guy like that.

 

[Mike 1967]

34 is vulnerable to this blocking scheme. I wonder how many snaps Ferguson got last night. Typically, he doesn't get handled that way. We will have to see if this continues in the future.

Also, I thought that Philly's Center played pretty damn well, aside from the QB/Center exchange issue. How the hell did this guy last on the practice squad for so long? We could have used a guy like that.

We used to have a guy like that.

I think his name was Kinnard :- )

 

[burmafrd]

We had a running game? We had a defense against the rush? REALLY.

 

[Doomsday101]

We had a running game? We had a defense against the rush? REALLY.

We had one, it just failed to show up last night. LOL....

 

[utrunner07]

Dont forget the eagles held LaDainian to 7 yrds. IMO expectations were far too high for the running backs going into the game. On top of this there is no denying that the eagles played their best game of the year on both sides of the ball. The poor rushing numbers can be justified, the rush defense, well...hmmm...everyone has a bad game?

 

[Doomsday101]

Dont forget the eagles held LaDainian to 7 yrds. IMO expectations were far too high for the running backs going into the game. On top of this there is no denying that the eagles played their best game of the year on both sides of the ball. The poor rushing numbers can be justified, the rush defense, well...hmmm...everyone has a bad game?

We are one of the few teams who shut Alexander of Seattle down. It was disappointing seeing the eagles run the ball especially when you feel we could have done much better than we did last night.

 

[scottsp]

We simply lost too many one-on-one battles last night - all over the place, but especially at the point of attack. I'm not so sure it's an epidemic as much as it was a case of the Eagles front coming out and playing harder than ours.

Philly put it all out there last night in terms of effort. They had the crowd behind them and it was a game they had to have, not to mention those guys remembered what happened in Irving not so long ago.

You see this each week throughout the league. One week you see a team physically manhandle another. A month later, the tables turn. That seems to be the way of it now. Even the upper tier teams go through this.

Well, maybe not Indy.

 

[btcutter]

Wasn't sure what it was but the DL seemed very slow off the snap count. They were still in their stance when the ball is hiked and Phili OL attacked. Constantly, the DL was pushed back 3-4 yds beyond LOS. No wonder they average 5 yds per carry. We better straighten out our Run D or else we are in for a long night against Denver.

why is it that none of our RB's can break a tackle????? why??? what happened to JJ? He just isn't himself.

 

[Zimmy Lives]

I agree, but I don't understand how their new center was able to outplay Fergy and Glover.

It's pretty easy for the center to control the NT when you have Andrews-- all 400 lbs. of him -- helping on almost every play. At least that's what I noticed during the game.

 

[DallasKnight]

I mentioned in the chatroom several times we had gone back to the old engage and control gap style when in the 1st game, all we did was get into the backfield and disrupt things. I think the D-coordinator or Bill, or both had watched the Commander game the week before and were afraid that Donovon would hurt us by running a lot. As it turned out, he did hurt us a couple of times, but if we had put him on the ground a few times, he'd have been out of the game, ala Bradie James at the end of the game.

I can't say much for our running game. I have no idea why we couldn't run the ball. We ran over them the entire 1st game. Can't figure that one out. Trotter can't have made that big a difference all by himself.