So, here we are through two rather interesting games of the Eagles season, and the Birds sit at 2-0, including a shaky home win against a really bad team and an impressive road win over a pretty good team.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t matter how you get there, as long as you get there, but let\u2019s take a look at what we have seen so far in these 120 minutes of game action.\u00a0 Here are my biggest takeaways through the first two games:<\/p>\n
1). Nick Foles looks shaky<\/strong> 2). The two guys picked ahead of Foles look FANTASTIC<\/strong> The other budding superstar is a guy that I have actually been higher on than most since being drafted #11 overall in 2012 \u2013 Fletcher Cox.\u00a0 I know that he didn\u2019t exactly \u201cpop\u201d in either of his first two years, but it is happening now right before our eyes.\u00a0 He still leaves a little to be desired in his ability to get to the QB (which is always going to make the casual observer mark him down a peg), but his ability to set the edge in the run game and pursue ballcarries (or scrambling QBs) is incredible.\u00a0 And, I think that his lack of consistent QB pressure has more to do with the fact that he is still learning the ins and outs of the 3-4 (he is much more natural in the 4-3).\u00a0 This year, however, he is starting to eat up multiple blockers in the pass game, which will, hopefully, lead to more QB pressure across the defense.\u00a0 Either way, Fletcher Cox is becoming a real star in this league and, along with Kendricks, the ridiculously underrated Connor Barwin and the ever-steady Demeco Ryans, could be the centerpiece of a defense that has actually looked very, very good through two games.<\/p>\n 3).They do miss D-Jax\u2026schematically\u2026but are a significantly better football team without him<\/strong> HOWEVER\u2026while Chip & Co. are too classy to come out and say it, I think that the team is much <\/em>better because he is gone.\u00a0 If you ever get a chance to hear guys like Adam Caplan talk about it (and, very few know more about the inner workings of the Eagles than Caplan), the real problem with Jackson came down to attitude.\u00a0 Now, that seems like an obvious comment, but Caplan puts a different spin on it and provides stark examples.\u00a0 Caplan talks about how Chip Kelly had decided midway through last season that they were going to move on without Jackson because he was holding back a lot of what they wanted to do around there.\u00a0 It wasn\u2019t the gang ties; it wasn\u2019t the cursing out of the coaching staff; it wasn\u2019t even his stark refusal to buy-in to the smoothies and sleep monitors.\u00a0 It was simple \u2013 the thing that Kelly\u2019s offense gets the most press for is its tempo.\u00a0 And, Jackson was slowing them down.\u00a0 That tempo doesn\u2019t just come from \u201churrying up\u201d on Sunday afternoon when you have the ball.\u00a0 That tempo comes from intricate practice schemes, where the players practice over and over getting tackled, jumping up, throwing the ball to the ref, and running back to the line.\u00a0 Jackson never wanted to do that \u2013 particularly in practice.\u00a0 Kelly believes (according to Caplan) that Jackson\u2019s refusal to take this uptempo style at practices (and oftentimes games) seriously enough slowed the whole team down<\/em>.\u00a0 So, he cut him.\u00a0 And, the tempo is soaring through two games and is possibly the reason that this team is the only team in NFL history to be 2-0 after trailing both games by 14+ points in the second half.<\/p>\n 4). Practice matters 5). These WRs are not very good<\/strong> Jeremy Maclin looks a little better, but he does not look anything close to a #1 receiver right now \u2013 nor does it look like he ever will be, to be honest.\u00a0 He has good speed, but nothing game-changing, and he has a willingness to go get the tough catch, but I am not sure he has the ability.\u00a0 I said it all offseason, they should have given Houston a 2nd<\/sup>-rounder for Andre Johnson \u2013 and, I really value high draft picks and do not value WRs on the wrong side of 30 \u2013 I just think that was the last piece of this offensive puzzle.\u00a0 But, again, this is the top-scoring team in the NFL, so who\u2019s complaining.<\/p>\n 6). That \u201csilent killer\u201d is gone this year<\/strong> 7). How can we go this far without mentioning\u2026?<\/strong> 8). And, the heartbeat of this offense continues<\/strong> So, here we are through two rather interesting games of the Eagles season, and the Birds sit at 2-0, including a shaky home win against a really bad team and an impressive road win over a pretty good team.\u00a0 It … Continue reading
\nI know, it is strange for the #1 takeaway for a 2-0 team to be a negative one.\u00a0 It is even stranger for that negative to be about the QB who is 2nd<\/sup> in the league in passing yards and is in charge of the league\u2019s highest scoring offense. \u00a0I have come around and am officially a \u201cFoles guy\u201d now, but we have to be honest \u2013 he looks a bit shaky.\u00a0 The first half against Jacksonville was abysmal, and the first half against Indy wasn\u2019t all that much better. \u00a0He has missed open receivers and has misthrown several short passes and bubble screens. \u00a0While he did rally both times and showed some real resiliency, he does not seem to have the same poise and accuracy that he had last year.\u00a0 But, let’s remember, it\u2019s early. \u00a0They\u2019re 2-0. \u00a0And, they lead the league in points scored, so we will take 19 of those \u201cshaky\u201d games if they turn out the same result. \u00a0I am actually encouraged by the fact that both Foles and McCoy have been relatively quiet and they have 64 points and 2 wins in two games.<\/p>\n
\nFoles \u2013 the 3rd<\/sup>-round pick \u2013 may be the most nationally well-known Eagle drafted in the 2012 draft, but the two guys the Eagles drafted before their franchise QB have are on the brink of legit stardom \u2013 and they are both on the other side of the ball.\u00a0 Mychal Kendricks has shown flashes of brilliance in each of his first two seasons in the NFL, but he was annoyingly (at least to me) inconsistent.\u00a0 This year, he looks like a total stud across the board.\u00a0 Now, we don\u2019t really know the extent of the calf injury he suffered Monday night, but before he left, he had put in 7 incredible quarters of football in 2014 \u2013 making plays all over the field.\u00a0 He can cover tight ends and even some slot receivers when needed, but he can also get to the QB and is a killer against the run.\u00a0 Now, I haven\u2019t been as high on him as most in his first 2 years, but right now, he looks like the centerpiece of a potentially outstanding defense for the next decade.<\/p>\n
\nThis is no real surprise, as he is a dynamic playmaker who makes a lot of things happen even when he doesn\u2019t get the ball.\u00a0\u00a0 All his big plays aside, maybe the true value of DeSean Jackson on the field was the impact he had on everyone else in the passing game.\u00a0 Countless D-coordinators have said, flat-out, that they used to completely tailor their defensive gameplans around containing DeSean.\u00a0 Safeties would always have to cheat his way, and the #1 corners that \u201ctravelled\u201d would always find their way to his side.\u00a0 Without him out there, the safeties are more free to roam in pass coverage and help in the run game.<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>With today\u2019s CBA, practice times have been slashed.\u00a0 Coaches have less ability to mold their players the way they want.\u00a0 But, the Eagles and Genius Kelly have found a way to combat this.\u00a0 While practice \u201ctime\u201d is regulated, there is no restriction, obviously, on practice \u201creps.\u201d\u00a0 And, by all accounts, Chip Kelly\u2019s practices are the most efficient practices this sport has ever seen.\u00a0 Dick Vermeil estimated that Kelly gets 3x as many reps in any given 2-hour practice than Vermeil\u2019s teams ever did.\u00a0 And, what does this do?\u00a0 Well, for one, it allows Chip\u2019s teams to get more work on their gameplans than anyone else in the league, but, secondly \u2013 and maybe more telling so far \u2013 is that it makes the Eagles the most well-conditioned team in the league.\u00a0 You look around the league in these two weeks, and you will see an avalanche of games that turned drastically in the second halves.\u00a0 Both Eagles wins, the Bears on Sunday night, the Patriots loss in Week One, the Browns nearly winning two games after bad first halves, etc., etc., etc.\u00a0 Early in the season, conditioning matters at the end of games, particularly in the heat.\u00a0 Late in the season, it matters in keeping guys healthy (the Eagles were the healthiest team in the league in Chip\u2019s first year).\u00a0 This stuff matters \u2013 and that is why this coach makes more of a difference on his team than any coach I have ever followed closely.<\/p>\n
\nI know we are only two games into his shiny new contract, but Riley Cooper looks like he is straight stealing $25 million out there.\u00a0 He is not getting open and not making plays.\u00a0 He looks like the lost, mediocre receiver that he was his entire career other than the second half of 2013. \u00a0Why do we think that he “figured something out” again?<\/p>\n
\nPeople talk about return and coverage production as \u201chidden yardage.\u201d\u00a0 Well, does anyone notice how much better the special teams\u2019 coverage is this year than last?\u00a0 The front office made significant free agent investments in Bryan Braman and Chris Maragos as well as personnel decisions seemingly driven completely by coverage ability.\u00a0 And, through two games, it seems to have paid off.\u00a0 And, by \u201cpaid off\u201d I mean that I have not noticed the coverage teams…at all.\u00a0 Coverage teams are like referees or offensive linemen \u2013 typically, the more you notice them, the worse they are.\u00a0 Just think back to last year and just how hair-pullingly frustrating the coverage teams (and lack of touchbacks, by the way) were.\u00a0 You don\u2019t have that same feeling this year, do you?\u00a0 Ya, me neither\u2026and, I like it.<\/p>\n
\nDarren Sproles and Zach Ertz!\u00a0 No, seriously, how amazingly do these two fit into this offense?\u00a0 The personnel matchups are so hard to defend.\u00a0 Such versatility combined with brilliant play design means that, short of playing nickel or dime packages, it is almost impossible to avoid having LBs covering either Ertz or Sproles or both \u2013 and that is the perfect recipe for big play after big play.\u00a0 And, the more that Ertz and Sproles dominate games this way, the more teams will have to go into sub-packages meaning LeSean McCoy may be running into nickel and dime packages\u2026yes, please.\u00a0 This offesnse is just going to get harder and harder to defend as it goes.<\/p>\n
\nAll of these great matchups and brilliant play design is great and all, but this offense (and most offenses) begins and ends up front.\u00a0 Jason Peters continues to be one of the best tackles of this generation, and certainly the best left tackle in football right now.\u00a0 Now, I am no expert on O-line play, but I believe you would be hard-pressed to find a center better in the league than Jason Kelce. \u00a0And, there are a lot of people who believe that Evan Mathis is the best guard in the league.\u00a0 That means that when (if) Mathis comes back, 3\/5 of this line will be the best in the league at their position.\u00a0 Throw in the solid veteran of Herremans and an athletic Top-4 pick in Lane Johnson (who will be back Week 5), and you have an ELITE offensive line – probably the best in the game – which is enabling all of that magic to happen around them. \u00a0And, I can’t wait for the next act…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"