What they're saying about the Eagles
I didn't get to the roundup during the week so here's a look at what the national media are saying about the Eagles:
Dan Graziano of ESPN.com says the Eagles made the right call in bringing Juan Castillo back for another season as defensive coordinator:
But if you believe, as the Eagles and head coach Andy Reid do, that Castillo is a good coach, you can make the assumption that he'll be better in Year 2 than he was in Year 1 at the parts of the job that challenged him. Eagles ownership is basically giving Reid and his staff a mulligan for this past season on the condition that they make up for it with a deep playoff run next season. If Reid truly believes that the circumstances and not the people were the problem, he should stick with what he believed all along was the right way to go.
SI.com ranks the top 15 teams to not win the Super Bowl. The 2004 Eagles make the list at No. 14:
The 2004 Eagles played in a haggard NFC East that season, and their margins with point differential (7.9) and turnovers (plus 6) were anything but stellar. But there's no disputing Philly's greatness with Terrell Owens in the starting lineup -- try 13-1. And it could have been 15-1 if a broken leg hadn't shelved Owens for most of December and all of January -- but not the Super Bowl in February, as T.O. defied the medical odds and caught nine balls for 122 yards in the Eagles' 24-21 loss to the Patriots.
ESPN's Trent Dilfer ranks the league's top 40 quarterbacks by category. He's got Michael Vick in the "Mostly Good" category with Cam Newton, Andy Dalton, Josh Freeman, Carson Palmer, Matt Hasselbeck and Alex Smith. The quarterbacks ahead of Vick are Peyton Manning, Tom Brady, Aaron Rodgers, Drew Brees, Ben Roethlisberger, Eli Manning, Philip Rivers, Tony Romo, Matt Ryan, Joe Flacco, Matthew Stafford, Jay Cutler and Matt Schaub.
Writes Dilfer:
It feels wrong to have Vick here, because the guy is an MVP-caliber player, but he's down a little right now as we wonder whether he can stay healthy. It wouldn't surprise me one bit if he was dominant in 2012.
The next link is from reader Victor, and it's actually from back in November. But it's a good breakdown from NFL.com of the Double-3 technique, used by Eagles defensive tackles.
The evolution of the 4-3 began with Bill George, a middle guard for Chicago in the '50s who decided to step back from his position covering center, reducing the number of down linemen from five to four, and standing at middle linebacker between two 3-technique defensive tackles. Now, a base 4-3 defense has one 3-technique, lining up shaded to the outside shoulder of the offensive guard and one defensive lineman shaded over the center.
In the double 3-tech, however, you bump the DT shaded over the center out of his A-gap and outside of his guard. Back to the way defensive tackles aligned minus George at middle guard.
According to Pro Football Focus, Michael Vick ranked second to only Eli Manning at avoiding sacks when pressured last season.
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