Confusion on 'D' and 2-minute drill
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Confusion on 'D' and 2-minute drill
Sheil Kapadia, Philly.com
I went back this morning and re-watched the first half of last night's Eagles' loss to the Colts.
Yesterday, I broke down Indy's opening 12 play, 81-yard drive, so the following observations are all from that point forward:
** In the chat, many of you seemed to be split in regards to the play of the offensive line and King Dunlap. Some argued that Dunlap played well other than the one Dwight Freeney sack and Donovan McNabb fumble. Others seemed genuinely worried. Here's how I saw it.
Andy Reid, Marty Mornhinweg and company did a good job of making sure Dunlap, Winston Justice and the rest of the offensive line wouldn't have to do too much in terms of pass coverage. They kept tight ends and running backs in to block. They called shorter routes so that McNabb would have to get rid of the ball quickly. They rolled him out to buy time. A good example was McNabb's first pass play of the game. They rolled him out to the right, and he hit DeSean Jackson on the near sideline. During the play, Jason Avant actually lined up next to Dunlap to offer him some help, and Matt Schobel aided Justice. The Eagles did several things like this throughout the game. In fact, I don't remember them taking a single shot down the field other than the Jackson TD catch. So if it seemed like McNabb really wasn't under a lot of pressure other than the one play, it was more because of the scheme and the calls than the performance of the reserve linemen. I'm not criticizing the Eagles here. That was the smart move. Just something to point out.
** Nice punt by Sav Rocca to pin the Colts inside their own 5-yard-line.
** Getting back to Dunlap, there is absolutely zero reason for anyone to be ripping him. He was a seventh-round pick who has never played a regular-season snap, and he was going up against one of the premier pass rushers of this era. What did we think was going to happen there?
** The Eagles' linebackers bit on play action during the entire first half. Things actually could have been worse for the defense. Peyton Manning misfired on a couple throws. One was a play-action fake which had Akeem Jordan completely turned around, but Manning missed his target, tight end Jacob Tamme.
** Your eyes did not deceive you. Ellis Hobbs did struggle. We all know about the 76-yard touchdown to Reggie Wayne. For the record, I want to hear what Hobbs, the safeties and Sean McDermott have to say about the play before completely pinning the blame on Hobbs. But on the Colts' second drive, he had a chance to bring down running back Donald Brown short of the first-down marker and didn't deliver a very good effort on the tackle. It was a third-down play, the time when the defense desperately needs to get off the field, and Hobbs allowed the Colts to extend their drive.
** Jason Babin played as well as I thought when I watched the game the first time around. He went right around Colts tackle Charlie Johnson on a four-man rush to force the Manning fumble. Mike Patterson also had a good push up the middle on that play. Babin made a couple other nice plays in the run game.
** LeSean McCoy made more errors this week. He was split out wide and dropped a perfectly thrown slant from McNabb. When A.J. Feeley was in the game, McCoy missed on a block that resulted in a sack. And on a 1st-and-5 toss, it looked like he had room to pick up the first down, but McCoy tried to bounce it outside and only picked up a yard. Not a good job blocking by Kevin Curtis on that play by the way.
** McCoy did have another nice play in the screen game, going 14 yards, thanks in part to a good block by Jamaal Jackson.
** Nice work all around on the TD throw to Jackson. Dunlap did a good job after getting help from Schobel. And McNabb made a perfect throw with a hand in his face. We saw that connection multiple times per day at Lehigh.
** Victor Abiamiri saw quite a bit of action, both at defensive end and inside on passing downs. He didn't get to the quarterback, but made a few nice plays against the run.
** Broderick Bunkley might be headed to the Pro Bowl this year.
** Nice job by Hank Baskett avoiding a defender and picking up a first down late in the half. Not really sure he, Reggie Brown or Brandon Gibson has really stood out though through the first two preseason games.
** Eldra Buckley got on the field before Lorenzo Booker. Do we read something into that, or did Reid just want to see how Buckley performed against defensive starters? He dropped a ball and fumbled, but also showed some of the flashes we saw a week ago against the Pats.
** Macho Harris seems to be a pretty good blitzer. He's been in the QB's face two weeks in a row.
** Feeley and the offense were in field-goal range with 11 seconds left in the half and no timeouts. The Colts had just been whistled for a penalty so the offense had time to huddle and figure out what they wanted to do. It's a situation they practiced all the time at training camp. But when the ball was snapped, Feeley hit Buckley over the middle, time ran out, and the Eagles were left with no points. There's only so much a coach can do. Feeley knew what his goal was there, but he just made a bad decision.
OK, I emptied out the notebook, as the saying goes. Chime in with your thoughts.
New England got rid of Hobbs for a reason. I live in Rhode Island and listen to sports talk on the radio. They spoke of Hobbs like Philly used to speak of Izell Jenkins.— misplacedeaglefan
Comment removed.- Dunlap was Ok saving for one play and is a keeper. Cou7ld be a starter. The Birds could absorb the Brian Dawkins departure but not Dawk and Bradley and no JJ. Joe Mays is too slow and can't tackle. Akeem Jordan struggles in coverage Demps is not the answer at safety, Q may need to play it while starting Sean Jones to SS. Rob Meyers looks likes he has some potential. Baskett and Gibson the keepers.— oldBird
- Dunlap was Ok saving for one play and is a keeper. Cou7ld be a starter. The Birds could absorb the Brian Dawkins departure but not Dawk and Bradley and no JJ. Joe Mays is too slow and can't tackle. Akeem Jordan struggles in coverage Demps is not the answer at safety, Q may need to play it while starting Sean Jones to SS. Rob Meyers looks likes he has some potential. Baskett and Gibson the keepers.— oldBird
- who is the linebackers coach? get your crew together or we are in deep doo-doo. Saints in week 2 is not going to be pretty. We might lose by 45 with Drew Brees picking us apart.— djack10
- i'm concerned about the D...i know it's preseason, but they don't look good...the preseason last year made us excited about the defense,,,no BDawk hurts,,,i don't care what anybody says,,,there was a play in the 1st half with a pass out to one of the Colts back where BDawk would have destroyed the guy and broken the play up,,,but it set up the TD...also Bradley out is gonna hurt,,,— theglue
- Comment removed.
- 6 and 10 breathes through his mouth. What a piece of $h*t.— 46 and 2
- I guess I meant Kapadia.— 46 and 2
- If that picture of Kappa had wavy hair that stands straight up, I'd swear it was Cosmo Kramer.— 46 and 2
- Good stuff Sheil. I was impressed by Babin too. That 3rd down "tackle" by hobbs was embarassing. Sheldon would have pancaked the dude.— duder
- DiMichelle won't be an Eagle in two weeks. Unless its sooner. So why bother discussing him? Babin looked good, but I need to see more. Hobbs looked bad, he's the third corner. Linebackers looked bad too.— dragoon6
- Guys that maybe they should find a way to keep: Fokou, DiMichele, Tracy White, Buckley. Babin is a keeper. Maybe Hobbs and Booker should go. None of the backup linemen impressed in the run game. Pass protection can be hard, but part of the run game is just firing out against the guy across the line. Saw none of the run blocking you typically see in the preseason from guys looking to make the team.— tacklinjoe
- You guys are kidding me right, I guest the 7-6 cinn-pat match was a master piece. This is the second game of preseason, where Andy always runs vanilla offense and defense, with the exception of Hobbs and some players who will not be arounf like Booker, it doesn't matter until the last 2 games. Oh yea of little faith.— PHILLY76
- Comment removed.
- Babin's studly. Buckley looks good. Maclin looked awful again in the return game. He doesn't tuck the ball. Anyone notice how fast Demps is? He ran right up the back of McCoy, who looked like he was running in quicksand on the return team. Feely is gone, and isn't showing enough to increase his trade stock.
- Yeah I like Babin as well, he played well. We are not going to know a thing about the offense until the O-line comes together and Westbrook is out there as well. Hobbs has not shown anything, Brown's job is safe. Linebackers looked bad last night. There are concerns, but it is only week 2 of preseason. I would sign a veteran or two to shore up the O-Line.— sonnycna
- AJ's an 8 year veteran, eaglesrick. Shouldn't HE know to get up to the line and spike it? What's it got to do with Reid?— bobbyuk
- When have Eagles ever had a good 2-minute drill under Reid/McNabb? Most games they used timeouts so early because Reid can't coach the talent he has.— RussOCNJ
keep Sheil. dump booker, can we get a trade some of our WRs for a d lineman or safety?— daveH- Good observations. I think the end of the half was worse then just that final play. If I remember correctly They hit Reggie Brown with a nice pass inside the 30..and there was still 40 plus seconds on clock. and they let it get down to 15 or so before getting off the next play. Spike the ball and they have 35 seconds left and could regroup. I put that one on Andy but agree with you on AJ should know better.— eaglesrick
- good notebook thoughts as usual sheil, do you know the details on the Matt Naggy debacle? looked on philly.com but nothing really said, man what a bummer for that guy, coaching interim to player to coachin interim in the span of 12 hours tops. ouch. but was just curious on why NFL denied his contract.— FlyEAGLES_GA
- We were not particularly sharp in any aspect of the game, 1st D didnt do anything against the Colts first O. Special teams, with the exception of Sav who killed it, was horrible in coverage and mediocre on returns. 1st team O was ok...nothing spectacular had this been a regular season game we would have been blown out...worse than ususal against the Colts.— nunyabz
- Comment removed.
- Babin looked pretty good last night. If he keeps it up he may just have a job this fall, be it here or somewhere else.— troke
- i agree with most of your points. The biggest concern of mine is that our starting linebackers really looked bad against both the run and especially against the pass. Mays looks too short out there and too slow as well. Gaither will be the starter by atleast week 3.— sore richard
- i agree with most of your points. The biggest concern of mine is that our starting linebackers really looked bad against both the run and especially against the pass. Mays looks too short out there and too slow as well. Gaither will be the starter by atleast week 3.— sore richard
- Dissaponting performance by the D. Without the O line hard to say how O will look this year.— UrbaneYahoo
Babin is a keeper. Dump Hobbs. Keep DiMichele. Dump Kolb. Keep Baskett. Dump Reggie. O-line needs to get healthy. Re-sign Runyan. And oh, I miss Jim Johnson.— Richard Saunders
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