Man Up: Clemons, Parker stand out
News blogs, sports blogs, entertainment blogs, and more from Philly.com, The Philadelphia Inquirer and the Philadelphia Daily News.
Man Up: Clemons, Parker stand out
Sheil Kapadia, Philly.com
On Sunday, when I got home from the Eagles' game at around 11 p.m., I cued up the DVR to watch the offensive snaps for yesterday's Man Up.
On Monday, when I got home at around 8 p.m., I cued up the DVR once again. Only this time, there was no Eagles game in my list. Instead, 430 minutes of Divorce Court.
Now I fully admit to watching some trash TV, but I can say with the utmost certainty that I did not DVR Divorce Court. And what happened to my Eagles-49ers recording?
If someone has an explanation for this DVR malfunction, please help me out here. With the alarm clock, I'm often duped by the AM/PM, but in this instance, I have no clue what went wrong
Anyway, fear not. I high-tailed it to the folks' house in the suburbs and went through the defensive snaps.
Here's the breakdown:
Juqua Parker - One of his strongest games of the season. Parker was probably the Eagles' best defensive lineman on Sunday. He pressured Alex Smith all day, batting down a pass in the first and getting a hold of him at the end of the first half on the Tracy White interception. Parker also did a very good job against the run.
Jason Babin - He got some playing time, but really didn't have much of an impact. No sacks since Week 9 against the Cowboys.
Victor Abiamiri - Basically the same write-up as Babin. He came in on third downs and other obvious passing downs. There was one play in the fourth quarter where he put decent pressure on Smith.
Mike Patterson - I thought he had a good game. Patterson made some very nice plays against the run, stuffing Frank Gore on a couple occasions and Michael Robinson once. Tony Siragusa also suggested what would be a candidate for the worst nickname in sports: Mike "Stand Pat" Patterson. Wow.
Brodrick Bunkley - Not a real active game from Bunkley. Looked like he misread the one Gore run that opened up a big hole and went for 37 yards. Good hustle to trip Gore up from behind on a screen in the second.
Antonio Dixon - Part of the defensive tackle rotation. He came in to spell Patterson and then Bunkley. Dixon made a nice play, stuffing Gore after 2 yards.
Darren Howard - He came in on third downs and other passing situations. Howard pressured Smith out of the pocket in the second, forcing him to throw it away.
Trent Cole - Quiet first three quarters for Cole. A lot of that had to do with the 49ers' passing attack, and them not taking a lot of shots downfield. In the fourth, Cole added to his sack total, getting to Smith twice. He now has 11.5 on the season.
Chris Clemons - Maybe his best performance of the season. Clemons lined up as one of five down linemen in the first quarter. At the end of the first half, he pressured Smith on the White interception. He also got good pressure off the edge on the Samuel interception. The Eagles used him in a variety of ways. At one point, he dropped back into coverage, which is not unusual. And on another down, he stood up at the line before rushing Smith. Clemons picked up his third sack of the season and first one since Week 8.
Akeem Jordan - Complete linebacker breakdown coming Wednesday, but Jordan and Will Witherspoon were the Eagles' combination for much of the game. Jordan has not looked nearly as active since returning from injury. He was beat on a 19-yard pass to Vernon Davis in the first quarter. Jordan late came on a blitz up the middle, freeing Parker up to pressure Smith. He also made a good tackle on Gore in the third.
Will Witherspoon - He was on the field for every defensive snap. Witherspoon knocked Smith down on a blitz in the first, helping to force an incompletion. He wasn't particularly effective against the run, getting blocked on a couple big Gore runs, including a 37-yarder in the third.
Jeremiah Trotter - He was the middle linebacker in the base package, which wasn't on the field as much as last week. Trotter made a couple really nice plays against the run, although he did get blocked on the 12-yard Gore carry in the first. We probably should be making more of this story. Remarkable that he's contributing.
Moise Fokou - The rookie replaced Chris Gocong in the base package. Looked bad on a 12-yard run by Gore in the first, but made a couple nice plays against the run later in the game.
Tracy White - Nice job by White. He took Jordan's place in certain passing situations and came up with an interception at the end of the first half. White also blitzed and forced Smith to throw the ball away in the third.
Asante Samuel - He's here to make plays, and Samuel had an interception and fumble recovery. On the downside, he was called for illegal contact in the first quarter. Samuel also missed a tackle on Josh Morgan, helping turn a 3-yard gain into a 22-yard gain in the fourth quarter.
Sheldon Brown - Great all-around game for Brown. He forced a Delaney Walker fumble in the first quarter and had a couple pass break-ups later. Good job in run support early, bringing down Gore 12 yards downfield on what could have turned into a huge play.
Joselio Hanson - Hanson also played well. He blitzed from the slot multiple times, chasing Smith out of the pocket and forcing him to throw it away. Hanson also made a nice tackle on a wide receiver screen in the fourth.
Dimitri Patterson - McDermott's secret weapon for covering opposing tight ends, huh? Patterson came in as a sixth DB on multiple occasions and performed well. He broke up a pass intended for Jason Hill in the first half. He was all over Davis on the Samuel interception and broke up a pass intended for Davis on a 3rd-and-13. The 49ers' tight end had just three catches for 43 yards, and Patterson deserves part of the credit for that.
Quintin Mikell - Nice bounce-back game for Mikell. He had the interception in the first quarter and made a nice play in run support early. In the fourth, Mikell came on a blitz and hit Smith. The only time I really saw him get beat was the 15-yard completion to Davis on a 4th-and-5.
Quintin Demps - Demps replaced Sean Jones in certain third-down situations, but didn't have much of an impact on defense. He did come through with the big kickoff return to start the game.
Sean Jones - Bad performance by Jones. He made a terrible tackling attempt for the second week in a row, whiffing on the Morgan TD in the third. He also missed a couple other tackles in the run game and was called for a 44-yard pass interference penalty in the fourth.
Watching Sean Jones and Quintin Demps make mistakes and bad plays every week makes me miss Dawkins even more. Excited for Dawk to get a huge ovation on Sunday but after that I hope the Eagles crush the Broncos like the frauds they are.— NEPHILLY215- I would be curious Sheil to see what kind of grade you would give the overall defensive performance, as well as asking if you ever thought of adding in a summary for how the coordinators do for the game? I thought this had to be one of McDermott's better performances, if not best, considering the changes made from playing the Giants just one week earlier. Granted Gore got a hundred yards and snapped the Eagles streak, but the passing defense showed drastic improvement. The Hanson blitzes and Patterson covering the TE were good schematic changes that threw off entire passing game for the 9'ers, and certainly improved the pass rush. We can't get to a QB with just four rushing, but it looked like Eagles were coming from every angle and will need that come the playoffs. Good job by the entire defensive team, coach included.— Bleue
- Bleue -- Now you're getting greedy, asking for coordinator grades. Isn't there another Philly.com columnist who already grades the various phases of the game? Sheil is to be commended for his getting to the nitty-gritty of each player's contribution. Keep up the good work, and I loved the suggestion for the Blue Pill sponsor!— tomvallar
- Tomvallar, it's the xmas season, of course I'm being greedy (j/k), but I like Sheil's analysis of the players and the game more than the other philly.com writers...I do think he does a great job of breaking it down for us (barring his dvr works right). But I disagree that Viagra would be a good sponsor, just more ammo for the Phily haters to throw our way...how about PETA?— Bleue
I like these articles. Who has time to evaluate every play? Nice summary. And nice to see Clemons and Parker stepping up. Would have been nice to have Dawkins in there...oh well...The thing that concerns me is that over this win streak the only decent QB the Eagles faced was Manning, who put up some big numbers. There were many plays in the past 5 games that could have been big trouble if the QB or receiver didn't mess up. Brees and Rivers also showed what can happen. Hopefully, the D has grown since then...or else the Eagles will need to win in shoot-outs, like they did in NY.- Has Trevor Laws passed away???????????????— craig123
- NEpHILLY, You forget about Dawkin's forgetable last 2 years here?— maximus
Comment removed.- Sean Jones seems to have caught the Asante Samuel "ole'" tackling disease, which is REALLY bad when you're a 225 lbs. safety who's supposed to make tackles.— CarpGuy
I think Asante Samuel is forgiven too easily for his poor tackling because he'll make an interception once in a while.— ej610- Would love to have Dawkins out there over Jones/Demps/Harris. Since the Eagles are winning people have forgotten about how horrible it was to let BDawk go. There is no doubt the Eagles would be better with him— Lemur
why didnt we pick up chris mcallister ? wouldl ove to have sheil grade the coaching!! we have the players its just a mater of the coaches putting them in the best positions to make plays.— daveH- I think what may have happened with the DVR was that, since the iggles-niners game was switched from 1 to 4, the DVR didn't pick up the change in time and instead taped from 1-4 instead of 4-7.— mhaga3zg
Follow
Sheil on Twitter. And become
a fan of Moving the Chains on Facebook.
Download our NEW iPhone/Android app for even more Birds
coverage, including app-exclusive videos and analysis. Download it here.
