Yakuza Rich
Well-Known Member
- Messages
- 18,043
- Reaction score
- 12,385
Dallas vs. Philadelphia Game Preview
by Yakuza Rich
http://yakuzarich.blogspot.com
DALLAS (-7) VS. PHILADELPHIA
AT TEXAS STADIUM
SEPTEMBER 15, 2008 8:30 PM EST
The Philadelphia Eagles have had a stranglehold on the NFC East this decade, going 83-45 since 2000. However, since the addition of Bill Parcells, Joe Gibbs and Tom Coughlin to the division the Eagles have been far less successful.
Last season the Eagles were favorites to take the division again, but couldn’t get off on the right foot due to some problems at receiver and special teams, then eventually another injury to Quarterback Donovan McNabb. Eventually McNabb came back to the team and the Eagles wound up winning their last three games of the season to manage an 8-8 record.
While the Cowboys are heavy favorites based on their talented roster and the Giants are favorites in some people’s eyes after a Super Bowl victory, there’s still a large contingent that like the Eagles to take the division. However, it has been acknowledged that the Eagles are aging and this is probably their last year to make a run for the Super Bowl under Donovan McNabb. They had an impressive 38-3 victory over the lowly St. Louis Rams and are now coming into Texas to take on their hated divisional rival. These teams won’t face each other again until week 17 when both teams meet up at Lincoln Financial Field.
WHEN DALLAS IS ON OFFENSE
Last year teams found themselves trying different methods to stop Tony Romo. In the beginning it was to contain Romo in the pocket because the belief was Romo couldn’t be effective throwing the ball in the pocket. When that wasn’t working, opposing teams would blitz the Cowboys. After that failed teams would drop 7 or 8 back, playing a very conservative Cover 2 and forcing Romo to take the underneath stuff. In week 7 the Vikings took a different approach utilizing a lot of zone blitzes and spying Romo with defensive tackle Kevin Williams. That plan really didn’t work either and wound up exhausting the 300+ pound Williams.
However, the Eagles decided to use that type of gameplan in the week 15 matchup and essentially switch D-Linemen to drop back in pass coverage and take away Romo’s pass options underneath. They also utilized a variety of different players to spy on Romo, mainly trying to take away Romo’s ability to step up in the pocket and make the big throw.
I expect more of the same here early on. The Eagles will show a lot of blitzes and zone blitzes and Dallas will have to do some guessing as to when to run against the zone blitz and when to throw against the traditional blitz. And obviously, it’s important that they execute the runs against the zone blitz, something they didn’t do well against the Eagles in week 15 of last season.
Philly D-Coordinator Jim Johnson has stated in the past that he really wanted to stop Marion Barber, but then changed his mind and felt that the team needed to stop Jason Witten. According to Johnson, he doesn’t think much of Witten as a deep threat, although I think that’s a bit of a mistake. That being said, Johnson did use quite a bit of Cover 3 to help contain Witten.
Last year they used Omar Gaither a lot as the middle linebacker, but have now switched him to the weakside and moved strongside linebacker Stewart Bradley to the middle. With that and Witten’s capabilities, I doubt we’ll see too much Cover 2 from the Eagles since that will leave Witten on Bradley up the deep middle. That being said, Bradley provides the team with much needed toughness against the run up the middle that Gaither did not last season.
The Eagles blitz about 30-35% of the time and stunt about 20-25% of the time. Corey Proctor did not play well in pass protection against the Browns. He had a problem with whiffing on blocks, particularly against Shaun Rogers, an athletic Nose Tackle, but a player who isn’t known for being overly quick. I’ve got to believe that the Cowboys are hoping that Montrae Holland is ready for the game as Holland has historically been a good pass blocker. If not, the Cowboys will have a harder time protecting Proctor because of the Eagles 4 man front and blitzing style. Expect a lot of stunts over to that side regardless of who starts at left guard.
The corners will play a lot of tight coverage because Johnson does like to blitz the corners from time to time. The Eagles corners use the “clueing” technique where they watch the backfield instead of playing the defender. That helps make interceptions easier to obtain, but if the offense can give the Quarterback time to throw or they can get the running game going, it makes the corners very susceptible to pump fakes and play action passes. While the Browns did drop a lot of 7 or 8 back in coverage, they did blitz more than given credit for, but the Dallas O-Line did a solid job of picking it up.
Expect a lot of safety over the top on Owens because Owens is most dangerous against tight coverage, but it’s something the Eagles prefer playing. I’d like to see Owens get some time against Asante Samuel one-on-one because I’m not convinced that he’s best playing man-to-man. That being said, expect a lot of motioning for Owens as they’ll try to find ways to give him some free runs downfield.
WHEN DALLAS IS ON DEFENSE
Dallas caught some flak for not getting pressure on Derrick Anderson last week. However, Anderson was only sacked 14 times all of last season which included only one sack allowed against the Steelers and one sack against the Ravens, two pressure heavy teams. While the Browns have a very good O-Line and Anderson does like to get rid of the ball quickly, there were several occasions where Anderson was rushing his throws to avoid the sack, which helps explain his inability to connect at least 50% of his passes last week.
The Cowboys were still a little more conservative than they have been under Wade Phillips. A big reason for that was the injury to Terence Newman and Anthony Spencer. They also seemed very focused on guarding against Kellen Winslow and used a variety of defenders to help out on him.
With Newman and Spencer back, I think they’ll be a lot more aggressive. I think they key is that they will continue to spy on Brian Westbrook, which worked great against the Eagles in week 9 of last season. The Eagles like to use a lot of stretch run plays, so I expect them to run more towards Greg Ellis who has struggled against the run the past couple of years at outside linebacker.
With Newman back, the Cowboys are more likely to play a bit more man-to-man, but zone is still their bread and butter. Last year the Eagles WR’s struggled against press coverage and had to use a lot of motioning in order to get some free runs downfield. One of the receivers who struggled against the press coverage was Kevin Curtis. He’s out with an injury. DeSean Jackson had a great rookie debut, but I would like to see how he does against press coverage as well since most rookies never see press coverage in college and he’s a speedy, but diminutive corner. Unfortunately, Wade doesn’t really care to play too much press coverage. Corners Anthony Henry and Adam Jones tend to bite on plays, so I expect to see the Eagles use some pump fakes and play action against these two.
SPECIAL TEAMS
The special teams coverage was much better against Cleveland than it was in preseason, being led by Tashard Choice, Pat Watkins, and Keith Davis. They’ll need to be on top of their game again as rookie DeSean Jackson, known for his punt returns in college, had a 60 yard return against the Rams last week. David Akers and Sav Rocca are still solid in the kicking game.
OUTLOOK
Dallas is 11-3 on the road with Romo as a starter, but they are 8-5 at Texas Stadium. Romo’s QB rating is actually slightly higher at home, so he’s not the issue. However, the problem has been on defense as Dallas has allowed a 71 QB rating on the road, but an 86 QB rating at home.
The good news is that traditionally McNabb hasn’t been all that hot against the Cowboys at Texas Stadium. But even with that, I think the Eagles are going to be more up for this game than the Cowboys will be and there’s just enough players coming back from injuries to where they may not be fully ready for Monday Night’s game.
YR’S PREDICTED SCORE: Philadelphia 24 Dallas 20
by Yakuza Rich
http://yakuzarich.blogspot.com
DALLAS (-7) VS. PHILADELPHIA
AT TEXAS STADIUM
SEPTEMBER 15, 2008 8:30 PM EST
The Philadelphia Eagles have had a stranglehold on the NFC East this decade, going 83-45 since 2000. However, since the addition of Bill Parcells, Joe Gibbs and Tom Coughlin to the division the Eagles have been far less successful.
Last season the Eagles were favorites to take the division again, but couldn’t get off on the right foot due to some problems at receiver and special teams, then eventually another injury to Quarterback Donovan McNabb. Eventually McNabb came back to the team and the Eagles wound up winning their last three games of the season to manage an 8-8 record.
While the Cowboys are heavy favorites based on their talented roster and the Giants are favorites in some people’s eyes after a Super Bowl victory, there’s still a large contingent that like the Eagles to take the division. However, it has been acknowledged that the Eagles are aging and this is probably their last year to make a run for the Super Bowl under Donovan McNabb. They had an impressive 38-3 victory over the lowly St. Louis Rams and are now coming into Texas to take on their hated divisional rival. These teams won’t face each other again until week 17 when both teams meet up at Lincoln Financial Field.
WHEN DALLAS IS ON OFFENSE
Last year teams found themselves trying different methods to stop Tony Romo. In the beginning it was to contain Romo in the pocket because the belief was Romo couldn’t be effective throwing the ball in the pocket. When that wasn’t working, opposing teams would blitz the Cowboys. After that failed teams would drop 7 or 8 back, playing a very conservative Cover 2 and forcing Romo to take the underneath stuff. In week 7 the Vikings took a different approach utilizing a lot of zone blitzes and spying Romo with defensive tackle Kevin Williams. That plan really didn’t work either and wound up exhausting the 300+ pound Williams.
However, the Eagles decided to use that type of gameplan in the week 15 matchup and essentially switch D-Linemen to drop back in pass coverage and take away Romo’s pass options underneath. They also utilized a variety of different players to spy on Romo, mainly trying to take away Romo’s ability to step up in the pocket and make the big throw.
I expect more of the same here early on. The Eagles will show a lot of blitzes and zone blitzes and Dallas will have to do some guessing as to when to run against the zone blitz and when to throw against the traditional blitz. And obviously, it’s important that they execute the runs against the zone blitz, something they didn’t do well against the Eagles in week 15 of last season.
Philly D-Coordinator Jim Johnson has stated in the past that he really wanted to stop Marion Barber, but then changed his mind and felt that the team needed to stop Jason Witten. According to Johnson, he doesn’t think much of Witten as a deep threat, although I think that’s a bit of a mistake. That being said, Johnson did use quite a bit of Cover 3 to help contain Witten.
Last year they used Omar Gaither a lot as the middle linebacker, but have now switched him to the weakside and moved strongside linebacker Stewart Bradley to the middle. With that and Witten’s capabilities, I doubt we’ll see too much Cover 2 from the Eagles since that will leave Witten on Bradley up the deep middle. That being said, Bradley provides the team with much needed toughness against the run up the middle that Gaither did not last season.
The Eagles blitz about 30-35% of the time and stunt about 20-25% of the time. Corey Proctor did not play well in pass protection against the Browns. He had a problem with whiffing on blocks, particularly against Shaun Rogers, an athletic Nose Tackle, but a player who isn’t known for being overly quick. I’ve got to believe that the Cowboys are hoping that Montrae Holland is ready for the game as Holland has historically been a good pass blocker. If not, the Cowboys will have a harder time protecting Proctor because of the Eagles 4 man front and blitzing style. Expect a lot of stunts over to that side regardless of who starts at left guard.
The corners will play a lot of tight coverage because Johnson does like to blitz the corners from time to time. The Eagles corners use the “clueing” technique where they watch the backfield instead of playing the defender. That helps make interceptions easier to obtain, but if the offense can give the Quarterback time to throw or they can get the running game going, it makes the corners very susceptible to pump fakes and play action passes. While the Browns did drop a lot of 7 or 8 back in coverage, they did blitz more than given credit for, but the Dallas O-Line did a solid job of picking it up.
Expect a lot of safety over the top on Owens because Owens is most dangerous against tight coverage, but it’s something the Eagles prefer playing. I’d like to see Owens get some time against Asante Samuel one-on-one because I’m not convinced that he’s best playing man-to-man. That being said, expect a lot of motioning for Owens as they’ll try to find ways to give him some free runs downfield.
WHEN DALLAS IS ON DEFENSE
Dallas caught some flak for not getting pressure on Derrick Anderson last week. However, Anderson was only sacked 14 times all of last season which included only one sack allowed against the Steelers and one sack against the Ravens, two pressure heavy teams. While the Browns have a very good O-Line and Anderson does like to get rid of the ball quickly, there were several occasions where Anderson was rushing his throws to avoid the sack, which helps explain his inability to connect at least 50% of his passes last week.
The Cowboys were still a little more conservative than they have been under Wade Phillips. A big reason for that was the injury to Terence Newman and Anthony Spencer. They also seemed very focused on guarding against Kellen Winslow and used a variety of defenders to help out on him.
With Newman and Spencer back, I think they’ll be a lot more aggressive. I think they key is that they will continue to spy on Brian Westbrook, which worked great against the Eagles in week 9 of last season. The Eagles like to use a lot of stretch run plays, so I expect them to run more towards Greg Ellis who has struggled against the run the past couple of years at outside linebacker.
With Newman back, the Cowboys are more likely to play a bit more man-to-man, but zone is still their bread and butter. Last year the Eagles WR’s struggled against press coverage and had to use a lot of motioning in order to get some free runs downfield. One of the receivers who struggled against the press coverage was Kevin Curtis. He’s out with an injury. DeSean Jackson had a great rookie debut, but I would like to see how he does against press coverage as well since most rookies never see press coverage in college and he’s a speedy, but diminutive corner. Unfortunately, Wade doesn’t really care to play too much press coverage. Corners Anthony Henry and Adam Jones tend to bite on plays, so I expect to see the Eagles use some pump fakes and play action against these two.
SPECIAL TEAMS
The special teams coverage was much better against Cleveland than it was in preseason, being led by Tashard Choice, Pat Watkins, and Keith Davis. They’ll need to be on top of their game again as rookie DeSean Jackson, known for his punt returns in college, had a 60 yard return against the Rams last week. David Akers and Sav Rocca are still solid in the kicking game.
OUTLOOK
Dallas is 11-3 on the road with Romo as a starter, but they are 8-5 at Texas Stadium. Romo’s QB rating is actually slightly higher at home, so he’s not the issue. However, the problem has been on defense as Dallas has allowed a 71 QB rating on the road, but an 86 QB rating at home.
The good news is that traditionally McNabb hasn’t been all that hot against the Cowboys at Texas Stadium. But even with that, I think the Eagles are going to be more up for this game than the Cowboys will be and there’s just enough players coming back from injuries to where they may not be fully ready for Monday Night’s game.
YR’S PREDICTED SCORE: Philadelphia 24 Dallas 20
