By ERIC FISHER
“What do they say? If you keep doing the same thing over and over and expect a different result, you’re kind of kidding yourself.”
– Eagles president Joe Banner—
Banner uttered this paraphrasing of the famous quote about the definition of insanity following the Eagles’ loss to Arizona in last season’s NFC championship game. Banner later tried to quell the firestorm created by his statement. Although insisting that he thought his quote was unambiguous, Banner stressed that Andy Reid is a “heck of a coach” and that “we can win a championship with those people … we’re very lucky to have them.”
Now let’s fast-forward to this season. Lack of commitment to the running game. Poor clock management. Wasted timeouts. Inability to convert short-yardage situations. An apparent failure to adjust during games.
Or is that a rewind to last season? Or the season before? Or the one before that?
The reason it’s difficult to figure out which year those problems refer to is because the list of problems remains the same year after year.
The Eagles (5-4) aren’t a bad team. In fact, if the season ended today, they would earn one of the NFC’s wild-card berths based on tie-breakers. But the obstacles that have prevented the Birds from winning the Super Bowl remain the same year after year.
Remember the Eagles’ difficulty in converting on short-yardage situations last year? The Eagles addressed that problem by revamping their offensive line. They replaced aging tackles Tra Thomas and Jon Runyan with younger tackles Jason Peters and Stacy Andrews. Stacy Andrews then moved to right guard, switching positions with younger brother Shawn. We all know how that move worked out.
The Eagles also finally brought in a true fullback, Leonard Weaver, to serve as a lead blocker or power runner in short-yardage situations.
So, when the Eagles faced first-and-goal on the 1-yard line Sunday at San Diego, they ran the ball right into the end zone, right? Um, no.
Weaver got stopped on first down. Inexplicably, the Eagles had McNabb throw a low-percentage pass to the far side of the end zone on second down. The pass fell incomplete.
The Eagles trailed 14-0 at this point. Getting seven points was imperative. So in this crucial third-and-goal situation, Reid had Donovan McNabb hand the ball to Eldra Buckley, whose previous NFL rushing experience consisted of three meaningless carries in two blowout wins earlier this season.
Buckley was stopped. To be fair, however, it wasn’t as if he missed the hole. There weren’t any holes. On fourth down, Reid had David Akers kick the short field goal.
As if these decisions didn’t cause enough head-scratching, Reid reversed the pattern later in the half when the Eagles had first-and-goal at the 9-yard line. An incomplete pass on first down was followed by a Brian Westbrook run to the outside on second down, resulting in no gain. Why would you run on second-and-goal from the 8 when you didn’t run on second-and-goal from the 1?
The offensive linemen change. The fullback changes. The ballcarriers change. But one thing remains the same: the Eagles continue to have difficulty in short-yardage situations.
So what’s the common denominator? The play-calling.
Play-calling is a huge problem for the Eagles. And it’s a much larger problem than these two series.
Reid seems determined to prove that he can win a Super Bowl with a pass-first offense. Game after game, year after year, Reid abandons the running game and relies overwhelmingly on the passing game.
The Eagles have experienced success using Reid’s formula. The attempted comeback during Sunday’s 31-23 loss to the Chargers was a good example. The Eagles offense was most effective when McNabb was throwing all over the field to tight end Brent Celek and receivers DeSean Jackson, Jeremy Maclin and Jason Avant.
There are times, however, when an NFL team must be able to run the ball. A team must be able to run the ball when it’s ahead. That takes time off the clock. Good teams also must be able to convert short-yardage situations.
How can the Eagles be expected to convert in short-yardage situations when they don’t run the ball very often? Linemen who spend almost the entire game dropping back in pass protection are expected to suddenly drive-block and push defenders backward.
You might think the connection between the paucity of running plays called and the lack of success in short-yardage situations would occur to Reid. Wrong. There was a glimmer of hope when, following the disgraceful 13-9 loss to Oakland, Reid admitted that maybe the Eagles should have run the ball more often. That hope was quickly extinguished.
Reid keeps returning to the same formula. Game after game. Year after year. Not surprisingly, the results remain the same.
There are only two ways the results could change. Either the coach changes his philosophy or the Eagles change coaches. Neither is likely to happen.
Why not? To paraphrase another famous quote, the Eagles haven’t learned from history, so they seem destined to repeat it.
November 19, 2009
BIRDS HAVEN’T LEARNED FROM HISTORY
November 11, 2009
SIMILAR PROBLEMS HAUNT PSU, BIRDS
By ERIC FISHER
To borrow an infamous line from former NFL coach Dennis Green, maybe “they are who we thought they were.”
Penn State and the Philadelphia Eagles both lost critical games last weekend. Both games were at home. Both were against archrivals.
The similarities, however, don’t end there. These losses may also have revealed these teams to be what many of us expected.
The football season is filled with peaks and valleys. A monumental victory provides us with a one-week high. A loss sends us tumbling down into the depths of despair.
Our teams rarely are as good as we think they are after an exhilarating triumph. And they’re rarely as bad as we think they are after a bitter defeat. The truth often can be found somewhere in the middle.
Penn State is not as bad as it appeared during Saturday’s 24-7 loss to Ohio State. If the Nittany Lions were that bad, they wouldn’t be 8-2.
The loss, however, did expose problems. The Nittany Lions, much like the Eagles, aren’t consistent on offense. Also like the Eagles, the Nittany Lions’ problems on offense start with their offensive line.
Continuity is a huge factor for offensive lines. The line must work as a cohesive unit. The longer the members of the offensive line play together, the better the line usually performs. The more players are shuffled in and out of the lineup and shifted from position to position, the more difficulty the offensive line has in developing consistency.
Penn State’s offensive line consists of five players new to their starting positions. Even the two returning starters, center Stefen Wisniewski and left tackle Dennis Landolt, are playing new positions, with Wisniewski moving from guard and Landolt flipping from right to left tackle to protect quarterback Daryll Clark’s blind side.
The offensive line has played well in stretches, but it hasn’t developed consistency. Several players have started at guard and right tackle. All those elements make it difficult to develop consistency. That’s why the line looks good in stretches, but struggles against better opponents.
The offensive line’s struggles are evident in the running game. Even if Stephfon Green’s ankle problems are taken into account, the running game has declined since last season. That makes it easier for opposing defenses to focus on Clark and the passing game. Clark doesn’t have as much time to make a play, which makes it more difficult for the receivers to get open.
Remember, the Nittany Lions lost receivers Derrick Williams, Jordan Norwood and Deon Butler to graduation. They lost starting offensive linemen A.Q. Shipley, Rich Ohrnberger and Gerald Cadogan. They lost defensive ends Aaron Maybin, Maurice Evans and Josh Gaines, as well as the entire starting secondary.
So maybe two losses is about right for the Nittany Lions. I thought they had an opportunity to be a one-loss team and qualify for a BCS bowl, but a two-loss season is probably about right. In other words, the Nittany Lions are who we thought they were.
Whether the Eagles are who you thought they were depends on who you thought they were. If you had Super Bowl aspirations or envisioned the Eagles as a 12-win team, you’re probably disappointed (and a bit delusional).
If, however, you viewed the Eagles as an inconsistent team that may struggle to sneak into the playoffs, as they did last year, then the Eagles are who you thought they were.
One week, as against the Giants, the Birds look terrific. Another week, as against the awful Raiders, the Birds look like roadkill. That is why they are 5-3 despite a first-half schedule that included Washington, Oakland, Kansas City and Tampa Bay.
The Eagles’ inconsistency was not unexpected. As I wrote before the season, “The Eagles have too many changes, from defensive coordinator to middle linebacker to most of the offensive line, to be consistent.”
Like the Nittany Lions, the Eagles’ problems begin with their offensive line. Three of their five projected starting offensive linemen were different than last year. They replaced veteran tackles Jon Runyan and Tra Thomas with Jason Peters and Shawn Andrews. That plan lasted until Andrews hurt his back during a conditioning run on the first day of training camp.
The situation got worse when starting guard Todd Herremans suffered a stress fracture in his foot. Stacy Andrews, Shawn’s brother, has struggled in his return from a knee injury and is now a very expensive backup guard.
Center Jamaal Jackson has been the only constant on the Eagles offensive line. Is it any wonder that the offense has been inconsistent?
The team has been inconsistent, but some of the problems experienced during Sunday night’s 20-16 loss to Dallas are constants. The Eagles still have difficulty converting in short-yardage situations and covering tight ends, time management is an ongoing problem and the Michael Vick/wildcat experiment is a bust.
But the inconsistency wasn’t unexpected. The only thing you can expect with the Eagles is that you never know what to expect.
Like the Nittany Lions, the Eagles are who we thought they were.
September 10, 2009
TOO MANY QUESTIONS HOVER OVER BIRDS
By ERIC FISHER
The Eagles are not ready for the start of the season.
I don’t recall ever having written those words about an Andy Reid-coach team. Not good enough? Yes. Missing pieces? Yes. Unprepared? No. Never.
Well, there was the 2007 season-opener against Green Bay, when Reid, after cutting return specialist Jeremy Bloom, threw Greg Lewis and J.R. Reed to the wolves. Neither had any previous game experience returning punts. Both fumbled punts that led to Green Bay points in an Eagles defeat.
Even 2007, however, pales in comparison to this season. Yes, there is still a question regarding who will return punts. But there are also questions about middle linebacker, safety and the offensive line.
The offensive line was the centerpiece of the Eagles’ offseason remodeling. Veteran tackles Tra Thomas and Jon Runyan were not re-signed. With much fanfare, the Eagles acquired Jason Peters from Buffalo to replace Thomas at left tackle. The Eagles also signed free agent Stacy Andrews to play right guard, with Shawn Andrews, Stacy’s younger brother, shifting to right tackle.
Although the Eagles denied it, one reason for acquiring his older brother and a former college teammate (Peters) seems to have been to make Shawn Andrews more comfortable. Shawn Andrews battled depression issues last year, then missed the rest of the season with a back injury.
There was great anticipation about this reconstructed offensive line. It was younger and, supposedly, much better at run blocking. The Eagles, as we all remember, struggled to convert third-and-short plays last season.
So how does the revamped offensive line look? We don’t know. Why not? Because we haven’t seen it.
Shawn Andrews did a tremendous impression of the invisible man during training camp. He injured his back during the first training run, then – poof! – he wasn’t seen again.
Peters and Stacy Andrews both missed time due to injuries during training camp. When Peters played, he looked rusty, mistiming snap counts and failing to pick up blitzes.
Preseason games are the time to shake off the rust, so Peters’ play in itself isn’t alarming. But Stacy Andrews didn’t see much action, either. Shawn Andrews didn’t take a single snap during a preseason game. Did I mention that left guard Todd Herremans suffered a stress fracture in his foot and will miss at least the first two games of the season?
Offensive lines require repetition to get their coordination and timing down. The Eagles’ projected starting offensive line, with two new starters and one player switching positions, hasn’t played one snap together yet. Quite simply, they aren’t ready to start the season.
The Eagles also have question marks in other areas. You try not to draw too many conclusions from watching preseason games, but neither the defense nor special teams appeared ready to start the season.
The defense enters the season with question marks at defensive end, free safety and middle linebacker. There was competition for playing time at all three of these positions. Competition is a good thing, except when nobody wins it.
Omar Gaither will start at middle linebacker, but did he win the competition? Not exactly. After starter Stewart Bradley was lost for the season with a torn ACL, the Eagles gave Joe Mays every chance to win the starting job. Mays, who will miss Sunday’s season opener against Carolina with a strained shoulder, failed to take advantage of the opportunity. Gaither, who lost competitions last year at middle and outside linebacker, won this job by default.
The same is true at free safety, a position formerly filled by all-pro Brian Dawkins. Neither Quintin Demps nor Sean Jones distinguished himself in the battle to replace Dawkins. Consequently, the starter will be rookie Macho Harris.
Defensive end is a similar story. The Eagles need a defensive end other than Trent Cole to pressure the quarterback. But the only defensive end to shine during preseason was Jason Babin, a cast-off acquired during the preseason. Victor Abiamiri “earned” the starting position.
This isn’t a season of despair – or at least it shouldn’t be one. The Eagles have plenty of talent, especially on offense. Quarterback Donovan McNabb and running back Brian Westbrook will have plenty of help. (Note that I’m not overly concerned that Westbrook didn’t take a snap this preseason. He should be fine.)
LeSean McCoy should give Westbrook a breather and provide a spark. Fullback Leonard Weaver should help the Eagles pick up those crucial yards on third-and-one. Rookie receiver Jeremy Maclin adds depth at receiver, where DeSean Jackson may be primed for a breakout season after an excellent rookie year.
The Eagles should be exciting, but their unprepared state as the season begins probably ensures they’ll be inconsistent. There are simply too many moving parts. Most of the starting offensive line, the defensive coordinator (Sean McDermott) and the starting free safety are all new. And we haven’t even discussed the Michael Vick experiment!
The height of inconsistency is to be good one week and bad the next – all season long. That sounds about right to me.
“Perfect inconsistency” adds up to an 8-8 season.
