Hey Andy Defenders....

[hunt]

i haven't seen any andy defenders in this thread...perhaps the title should be changed.

[Rome]

i haven't seen any andy defenders in this thread...perhaps the title should be changed.

Okay, I'll try. . .

I did like Andy's outfit.  Black is slimming on him.

[ice grillin you]

ok i looked up the exact numbers

in the second half the eagles had 12 first down plays and threw the ball on 9 of them

they had 8 total rush attemps in the second half

and 99% of this coming after the third play of the half when westbrook busted the 62 yarder...so your best player breaks off a monster run on the third play of the half and what do you do?...you throw the ball 80% of the time for the rest of the game

[Rome]

Westbrook ran the ball only five times after his TD.  He ran once for 18, once for 15, once for 9, once for no yards and once for a yard.

No one is disputing that they should have kept running the ball, IGY. 

[Sgt PSN]

The Saints had no intention of letting the Eagles run on them.  They keyed against the run from the start.  I would have stuck with it personally but the Eagles were having quite a bit of success throwing the ball so I can't blame them too much.

the eagles had a 6.2 avg per rush...so for all the saints tried to do they were still very successful...maybe had the eagles committed to the run more in the first three quarters then they would have felt better about running the ball on 3rd and a half yard....even before that tapeh call yeah westbrook was stopped on 2nd down but the two previous runs before that went for like 15 and 10 yards respectively

what the saints were really doing was stuffing up the middle...thier tackles were beating the eagles but they also often had an extra man or two in the box....it was so obvious from the get...yet the eagles refused to run westbrook outside the tackles...i was screaming all game for the toss sweep...if you look back i think he ran outside the tackles four or five times all night and everyone time he did (outside of i believe the first possesion of the game where he got stuffed) he banged out chunks of yards...yet they kept going off guard with him it was maddening

it was almost as if reid and morningwheg werent there for the six game winning streak and simply didnt see any of what made them successful....just baffling

IG, I agree with most of your points, but to point at a 6.2 average - take away that 62 yard break-out by Westbrook, and what does the average fall to?

Yes, he could have broken another, but other than that, the Saints did hold the Eagles' running game (what there was of it, at least) at bay.

Westbrook carried 13 times for 116 yards.  Take away 1 carry/62 yards you've got 12 carries for 54 yds = 4.5 ypc

So even if you take away his one big run, he was still more than effective.  The Saints stuffed him on the first couple of possessions fo the game.  After that the running game picked up the pace significantly. 

[ice grillin you]

bottom line is andy stopped the eagles running game not the saints

[PhillyPhreak54]

Or was it Marty - you know, the guy calling the plays?

I thought they should have run more too. I can see their point in wanting to expose the Saints secondary because it is indeed terrible. But they should have set it up better and not throw on every first down later on. That creates a must run down on 2nd down and thus leads to it likely getting stuffed = 3rd and long.

They had opportunities in the passing game and had the plays been made we would be talking about the NFCCG again this week. Westbrook dropped 3 big passes and the one to Buck that doinked off of Simoneau's helmet was a potential big play too. No one was there to tackle him if Garcia gets him that ball.

[Rome]

It's weird how no one has answered definitively who was calling the plays on Saturday.  The game had Andy's fingerprints all over them, though.

As for the passing, it's a lot easier to drop a pass than it is to drop a handoff.   I wish they'd had more success and stuck with it, but. . .

[ice grillin you]

well ive said all along that i dont/didnt believe marty called as many plays as everyone was led on to believe....if he even called any at all...and this includes when they were beating up on all those scrub teams...to me it was more a pr thing to get people off andys back

but even if you believe he did give up the play calling...reid is the head coach and hes got to get in martys ear or take away the play calling all together when westbrook is getting absolutely ignored all second half

[PhillyPhreak54]

Agreed.

Just like I think Andy should be in JJ's ear saying - "You know Jim, I think it might be time to drop a safety down in the box to help. If you don't want Dawkins down there put in Lewis for run support because Considine is getting blown up"

[Rome]

Considine is all but useless against the run.  I read some of the shtein from Spadaro about him bulking up to be more effective and it made my heart sink a little because if that's the concensus on him, then we can forget about getting a real replacement for Lewis.

[shorebird]

Agreed.

Just like I think Andy should be in JJ's ear saying - "You know Jim, I think it might be time to drop a safety down in the box to help. If you don't want Dawkins down there put in Lewis for run support because Considine is getting blown up"

Alright now. I couldn't believe the way McAllister was just gouging out yards. But, if they brought a safety up, they would have probably left the middle open and Brees would have just exploited that too. It's amazing how far he's come in just a year after injury. He had a career year, and you could defiantly see the difference in his passes compared to Garcia's. There was one pass to Stallworth in the third quarter I think, that he tried to come back for and could not quite get it. It just didn't have enough on it to catch up to the receiver. Bree's passes are on the money and don't get a whole lot of air under them. He's throwing as good as, if not better than any qb out there right now. And that's saying something with Brady and Manning still in it.

[PhillyPhreak54]

They probably would have gone to the passing game. But when you are getting gouged by the run as bad as they were -it's pick you poison time. I would take a shot with forcing them to throw it where inc's stop the clock, sacks can happen and INTs can be thrown. Compared to McAllister ad Bush raping the front 7 for 8 a clip.

[ice grillin you]

jj much prefers to give up the rush yards vs pass as he thinks he can keep the pts lower if thats the case....not saying i agree but thats his philosophy

[Sgt PSN]

ok i looked up the exact numbers

in the second half the eagles had 12 first down plays and threw the ball on 9 of them

they had 8 total rush attemps in the second half

and 99% of this coming after the third play of the half when westbrook busted the 62 yarder...so your best player breaks off a monster run on the third play of the half and what do you do?...you throw the ball 80% of the time for the rest of the game

Hmmmmmm, this sounds familiar.  Oh yeah, it's remarkably similar to the game plan Reid incorporated during the Jags game this year. 

How many drives yesterday began with the Eagles throwing on 1st down?  I counted the first 4 or 5 but quickly lost interest in trying to keep note of any stats affiliated with that game at all......much like I basically lost any and all interest in the game itself.  But I decided to look it up today.  Mostly because it's Monday and I'd rather research stats than work.  So here's what I came up with. 

1st Drive:  Incomplete pass to Reggie Brown
2nd Drive:  Complete to Brian Westbrook for 2 yards
3rd Drive:  Incomplete to Brian Westbrook
4th Drive:  Donovan McNabb sacked
5th Drive:  McNabb complete to Brian Westbrook for 7 yards
6th Drive:  Correll Buckhalter runs for 4 yards
7th Drive:  McNabb passes to Brian Westbrook for 26 yards*
8th Drive:  Brian Westbrook runs for 2 yards
9th Drive:  Donovan McNabb runs for 12 yards (after a false start penalty)
10th Drive:  Complete pass to Donte Stallworth for 17 yards
11th Drive:  Complete pass to Donte Stallworth for 29 yards

*Drive only consisted of 1 play before the end of the half. 

The first play of the first 5 drives in this game were all passing plays.  And out of the 11 possessions the Eagles offense had, only 2 started off with a called run.  If that isn't predictable play calling then I don't know what is. 

Way to keep the defense off balance Reid.  You're super.   

Oddly enough (or maybe not), Reid made a similar decision during the Jags game as he did on 4th and 15 vs the Saints

Its 4 & 9 near mid field but in enemy territory, at home, down by two scores with 7:38 to go, and your defense can't stop a Pop Warner team.  All football logic says you go for it.  AR decides to punt.   Horrible football desicion not allowing your best player (McNabb) to try to make a play and get some momentum going.     ....................

.............  Poor football desicions, poor clock/game management, and a total lack of in-game adjustments are killing any morale this team had left.  This team is now consistently out coached and the players know it.

Read all about it here