Two things can be true:
The refs are terrible and we make terribly stupid penalties. Micah definitely gets held a lot and doesn’t get ANY calls, but he made a terribly stupid penalty by leading with a forceful elbow into Tua’s chest right after the throw. The week before Lawrence put an elbow forcefully into Allen’s chest! What happened. He also got called for Roughing the Passer. Micah was whining like a baby on the sideline. It was embarrassing! Do these guys learn from their mistakes. You cannot throw a forceful elbow into the QB’s chest right after the throw!!!! Do the coaches review the dumb as_ plays and say, “don’t do this again”.
CD Lamb lines up offsides. He needs the ref to motion him to move back. While he is moving back, another player is in motion. CD gets called for illegal motion and a positive play is negated. Again, do our guys learn from their mistakes. Players, especially defensive player have been lining up offsides all year( Fowler twice in 1 game).
Why are we NOT running the QB sneak on the 1 foot line? We are usually pretty da_ good at it. We have Dak and 2 elite guards. We try a handoff to Luepke instead. The handoff is botched. With a handoff there are more guys handling the ball. Dak is moving back not forward. The play takes longer to develope. More chance a defensive player will penetrate and blow up the play. So many reasons to just run the dang QB sneak! Late in the 4th quarter we are again on the 1 foot long. Do we learn from our mistake earlier and run the QB sneak? No, we run the DUMBEST PLAY OF THE YEAR. A play action pass from the 1 foot line. Our backup tackle who has been missing blocks all game let’s the DE run right past him and sack Dak for a 9 yard lose!!!( It took GREAT plays by Dak and Cooks to get the TD). Whiners with Steve Young and the Patriots with Brady almost always ran the QB sneak on 3rd or 4th and a foot. They had 2 of the best offenses in football and they did not get cute or fancy. They ran the basic QB sneak and were successful over 90% of the time!!! Philly is even more successful with the Tush Push. Run the dam QB sneak on 3rd or 4th and a foot!!!!!!
I thought all in all the D played pretty darn good. They held arguably the best offense in football to 22 points and forced them to kick mostly long FG’s. BUT when the game was on the line, and our Offense, finally gave us the lead, the defense was pathetic. Miami went straight down the field passing and running. Our D allowed them to kick a chip shot FG, while also running out the clock. Again, overall good D, but PATHETIC when we needed them the most.
Our Offense, including Dak struggled throughout the game, especially in the 2nd and 3rd quarters. We made some big plays, but everything seemed hard. Fangio’s scheme( mostly zone ) and talented defense made things hard for the O to figure out. Dak and the Offense did suck it up at the end of the game. They had a very hard fought drive to finally take the lead. The Offense does deserve credit for continuing to fight on under tough circumstances. I am worried about Dak playing against good zone defenses.
The Coaches: Today they had us ready to play. They had a good game plan and it was working well early in the game. Without the fumble we have a commanding lead. BUT our coaches did not adjust NEAR as well, as the Miami coaches. Our offense struggled mightily in the 2nd and 3rd quarter. They had 2 safeties deep an we were not able to exploit it with our run game. OUR RUN SCHEME is too basic! We had a misdirection run where we had one receiver in motion to the right and one going to the left. We handed the ball up the middle. Do to the misdirection Pollard had a huge hole. It was a well designed misdirection run. We do not have enough misdirection runs in our play book like this!! To many basic runs inside the tackles with very little misdirection.
Dan Quinn was slow to adjust, to Miami’s adjustments. We were having success early covering their receivers in zone, so Miami’s coach started using their TE’s over the middle. On most plays their TE’s were wide open. Took Quinn to long to adjust to this adjustment by the Miami coach.
Lamb is a stud but we still need to spread the ball around.
I think we will win our next 2 games and Philly will lose once to the Giants. We will win the NFC East and be the 2nd seed. IF, we play up to our potential and don’t make to many stupid mistakes AND run the dam QB sneak on 3rd/4th and a foot, we can win 2 playoff games at home. Hopefully, someone will knock of the Whiners before we have to play them.
We are a very flawed team, but still the 2nd best team in the NFC.
