It's the time of year when we get to watch meaningless
football games and overanalyze them. Don't get me wrong – there is quite a bit
we can learn from how a team performs in the preseason and I love to do it, but
most teams are playing with a dumbed down playbook and of course, the third and
fourth string are playing a large percentage of the game. So the fact the
Eagles beat the Steelers on Thursday night only means that our third and fourth
string are better than their third and fourth string.
Of course, this doesn't stop me from still sharing my
thoughts with what I saw from Thursday night’s game. In many ways, I feel like
I'm a broken record because some of the things I was going to say were the same
things that I said after last year's preseason game against the Steelers. For
that post, click here.
I was going to talk about the Eagles’ inability to get off the field on defense
because they have a hard time stopping the run and I was going to talk about
the fact that the touchdown the Eagles first-team surrendered was due to the
fact that they were still having the cornerbacks play off the receivers in zone
coverage even when the Steelers were that close to the end zone.
With those things in mind, let's look at the defense.
Last year the weakness on the Eagles defense was quite simple – the middle was
very susceptible. They tried several different players at middle linebacker and
their safeties played less than stellar. This resulted in a lot of teams
running up the middle and throwing the ball to their tight ends and running
backs. As a result, the Eagles decided to address middle linebacker in the
off-season by trading for DeMeco Ryans from the Houston Texans. In 2010, DeMeco
suffered a knee injury and even though he played the full 2011 season, the
injury showed in his stats. However, if DeMeco is able to come back and have a healthy
season, then the Eagles should be much improved at the middle linebacker
position. Putting that together with the fact that the young safeties they had
will be more experienced, the defense should be improved over last year.
So why did they still struggle on Thursday night? The
first thing that should be acknowledged is that they did not have either of
their starting defensive ends playing. Both Trent Cole and Jason Babin were out
with injuries, but something tells me that if it had been a regular-season
game, they would have been playing. So not having their star defensive ends
certainly played into some other their troubles. But there were three things
stood out to me that could become a problem (or rather, are still problems).
First, their tackling was abysmal – a common problem they had last year.
Second, the personal foul penalty that Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie took was
completely inexcusable. I know he's a physical defender and likes contact, but
he needs to know that you can't leave your feet especially to hit a quarterback.
And this brings me to my third, ongoing complaint regarding the Eagles defense.
They let Asante Samuel go, which means they now have two cornerbacks who thrive
in a system where they are able to be physical in a press, man-to-man coverage.
While I saw more man-to-man coverage, the Eagles still have a tendency to go
into that soft zone coverage where the cornerbacks are playing 5-10 yards off the
receivers. This is clearly what they were doing when Nnamdi Asomugha gave up
the touchdown in the second quarter. I think the unintended consequence of
having two cornerbacks who thrive on being physical yet playing a style of
defense where you ask them to do the opposite is that these cornerbacks will
then look for other outlets for their physicality, including foolish hits like
the one that Rodgers-Cromartie laid on Byron Leftwich. Also, I really like
Nnamdi Asomugha, but he looks confused when he's asked to play in that zone
defense. Defensive Coordinator Juan Castillo needs to recognize this and use a
zone defense very sparingly. I scream this at the games all the time, so I'll
do it here as well, “PLAY MAN-TO-MAN!”
One final thought regarding Thursday night’s game: the
quarterbacks. I was glad to hear that Michael Vick had a negative x-ray and
seems to be okay. While I'm still not completely sold on him as a franchise
quarterback, I do acknowledge that he gives them the best chance to win.
Unfortunately, we need to take a realistic look at past history and recognize
that his playing style usually results in him losing time due to injury.
Therefore, the Eagles need to make sure that a suitable backup can come in and
replace him without completely ruining their chance to still win games. After
Thursday night, I have serious doubts that Mike Kafka will be able to get that
done. The little bit I have seen from him over the years has left me less than
impressed and the interception he threw Thursday night was horrible. Throwing a
screen pass blindly is absolutely ridiculous and usually results in exactly
what happened – a defensive lineman running the other way with football. I
recognize that Nick Foles and Trent Edwards were playing against inferior
competition, but I'd like to see both of them get a chance going against the second
string. Nick Foles showed me a lot with his performance and I think he has the
potential to be a quarterback that Andy Reid can bring along as he has done
with many other young quarterbacks. Additionally, Trent Edwards has experience starting
in this league and I think should be given the opportunity to be the backup in
the event that Michael Vick goes out with an injury. Like I said, I'd love to
see both Foles and Edwards get some time with the second string and if they can
produce, I think the ideal situation would be to have Vick backed up by Edwards
and Foles as your third string rookie who learns the system. It's my prediction
that Kafka doesn't last and finds himself the odd man out at the end of the preseason
– or at least, that's my hope.
Those are my thoughts for now – I'll try and check in
again before the regular-season starts. Go Eagles!!!!!
