THUMPER
Papa
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It would appear that many of us were right in our assessment of what was wrong with this team for the first 4 weeks of the season, the coaching. We came out aggressive from the start on both sides of the ball and dominated one of the best defenses and shut down one of the most potent offenses in the league.
I and several others here have been screaming for Zimmer's head and for Parcells to open it up on offense and to stop "playing not to lose". When he finally does "play to win" we kicked major arse.
From what I have heard we played almost exclusively a 4-man line on defense which was another thing many of us said we should do, based on the personnel we have, and it was very effective both against the run and in putting pressure on McNabb.
The team played inspired football partly because it was the Eagles (although they didn't seem that inspired against the Commanders) but also becase the coaching staff finally showed some confidence in them and put them in a position to win rather than simply playing not to lose.
Football is a very emotional sport and the players use that emotion to generate adrenaline to rise above what they could normally do physically. That was one of the things that Michael Irvin brought to this team when he played was that he would get the players fired up when they needed it but more importantly Jimmy was aggressive in his playcalling and played to win all the time.
Parcells' style of grind it out, limit mistakes, and win by 3 points might have worked back in the 80s when he had a team built for that type of offense but his defenses were among the most aggressive ever seen back then and created turnovers and a short field for the offense.
Under Zimmer, that aggressiveness is missing and is never going to be a staple as it goes against everything he believes. He plays the same style on defense that Parcells uses on offense, playing not to lose, playing conservative, not taking chances, etc.
We opened it up on both sides of the ball yesterday and it paid off, just like many of us knew it would if our coaching staff would pull its collective head out of its rear and stop playing like pansies, afraid to lose.
I am praying that this will be a wake-up call to our coaching staff to continue to be aggressive from now on and forget the "playing not to lose" mentality as it is doomed to failure.
We came out firing right from the start with 2 straight passes to Glenn, both of which got us 1st downs. Then after a run by Julius got 2 yards, Bledsoe threw to Glenn for a 15-yard TD.
In the first half we threw the ball 26 times and only ran it 18 times, while in the 2nd half we passes 11 times and ran it 28 times. That is the same formula that Jimmy used back in the early 90s. We would jump out to a lead, build on it, force the other team to play catch-up, and run Emmitt in the 2nd half, especially in the 4th quarter.
We still dominated the time of possession with twice as much time as the Eagles. The mistakes were limited even though we came out aggressive. The players kept their heads in the game and played with fire and desire because they were finally being used the way they should have been all along IMO.
Many people tend to give the coaches the majority of the credit when things go right but blame the players or lack of talent when things go wrong. If Parcells is a great coach then he is a great coach and needs to be given the credit for the successes of his teams of the past but he also has to accept the blame when things don't go right since this is the team HE put together. Very few players are left over from the Campo era so this IS Parcells' team. The assistants are all his picks with only Zimmer and Juraszek still on board from before his time.
Parcells needs to continue to allow the players to play the game and not coach from fear of mistakes and losing. That mentality trickles down throughout a team and will sap its will to win. This team has a ton of talent and can go a long ways this year if it is allowed to.
End of rant.
I and several others here have been screaming for Zimmer's head and for Parcells to open it up on offense and to stop "playing not to lose". When he finally does "play to win" we kicked major arse.
From what I have heard we played almost exclusively a 4-man line on defense which was another thing many of us said we should do, based on the personnel we have, and it was very effective both against the run and in putting pressure on McNabb.
The team played inspired football partly because it was the Eagles (although they didn't seem that inspired against the Commanders) but also becase the coaching staff finally showed some confidence in them and put them in a position to win rather than simply playing not to lose.
Football is a very emotional sport and the players use that emotion to generate adrenaline to rise above what they could normally do physically. That was one of the things that Michael Irvin brought to this team when he played was that he would get the players fired up when they needed it but more importantly Jimmy was aggressive in his playcalling and played to win all the time.
Parcells' style of grind it out, limit mistakes, and win by 3 points might have worked back in the 80s when he had a team built for that type of offense but his defenses were among the most aggressive ever seen back then and created turnovers and a short field for the offense.
Under Zimmer, that aggressiveness is missing and is never going to be a staple as it goes against everything he believes. He plays the same style on defense that Parcells uses on offense, playing not to lose, playing conservative, not taking chances, etc.
We opened it up on both sides of the ball yesterday and it paid off, just like many of us knew it would if our coaching staff would pull its collective head out of its rear and stop playing like pansies, afraid to lose.
I am praying that this will be a wake-up call to our coaching staff to continue to be aggressive from now on and forget the "playing not to lose" mentality as it is doomed to failure.
We came out firing right from the start with 2 straight passes to Glenn, both of which got us 1st downs. Then after a run by Julius got 2 yards, Bledsoe threw to Glenn for a 15-yard TD.
In the first half we threw the ball 26 times and only ran it 18 times, while in the 2nd half we passes 11 times and ran it 28 times. That is the same formula that Jimmy used back in the early 90s. We would jump out to a lead, build on it, force the other team to play catch-up, and run Emmitt in the 2nd half, especially in the 4th quarter.
We still dominated the time of possession with twice as much time as the Eagles. The mistakes were limited even though we came out aggressive. The players kept their heads in the game and played with fire and desire because they were finally being used the way they should have been all along IMO.
Many people tend to give the coaches the majority of the credit when things go right but blame the players or lack of talent when things go wrong. If Parcells is a great coach then he is a great coach and needs to be given the credit for the successes of his teams of the past but he also has to accept the blame when things don't go right since this is the team HE put together. Very few players are left over from the Campo era so this IS Parcells' team. The assistants are all his picks with only Zimmer and Juraszek still on board from before his time.
Parcells needs to continue to allow the players to play the game and not coach from fear of mistakes and losing. That mentality trickles down throughout a team and will sap its will to win. This team has a ton of talent and can go a long ways this year if it is allowed to.
End of rant.
