Health issues are improving for the Eagles as they head into their stretch run. Running back Ryan Mathews (knee) and wide receiver Jordan Matthews (ankle) both return to practice this week. The Eagles were without both players last weekend against the Bengals.
Held out from practice were tackle Halapoulivaati Vaitai (knee) and wide receiver Dorial Green-Beckham (rib).
“Dorial Green-Beckham, we’ll hold him from practice. Still real sore in that oblique area,” HC Doug Pederson said. “And then Big V again, he’s doing well but we’ll hold him from practice. He’s still a little bit away from returning. But everybody else, Ryan will practice today, Jordan Matthews will practice today and everyone else will go.”
Meanwhile, give defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz some points for straight talk to the media and the fans:
“You know, for nine weeks you probably could not mention best defenses in the NFL without mentioning the Eagles,” Schwartz said. “The last three, you probably can’t mention worst defenses in the NFL without mentioning the Eagles. Hey, facts of life, man. That’s what it is. Same scheme, same players. I mean, other than (injured CB) Ron Brooks, pretty much the same bunch. We’re in a slump, you know? We have to own that. We’re in a three-game slump. We had good games and bad games in that nine (game) stretch early. Some games we played better than others, but these last three, we’ve been in a slump, you know, for a lot of different reasons.”
“The last two games, third down has been a significant part of that. This last game penalties had a significant portion of that. And sort of to go back to the effort question, those penalties we had, they weren’t from lack of attention, they weren’t from lack of composure. They were aggressive penalties.”
“We blitzed an awful lot in the Bengals game,” Schwartz said. “I think I called 19 blitzes, (we ran) 17, a couple of them we audibled out of since Andy Dalton was going to try to make it hard to blitz, and a couple of those looks you might get sued for malpractice if you tried to blitz a couple of those looks. During max protection they want you to blitz and keep you light in coverage,” Schwartz said. “Facts were, in this game, we got beat in blitz, we got beat in zone, we got beat in Cover Two, we got beat in two man, we got beat in six. We rolled through every one. We got beat in all of them. Facts of life, our corners aren’t playing very well right now. It doesn’t mean I’ve lost confidence in them because that’s the same bunch of corners that shut down some of the best offenses in the NFL. But we’re in a slump, and it didn’t matter what we were calling.”
“A couple weeks ago when I was up here, we were talking about Minnesota and I said, ‘It didn’t matter what I was calling, they were all working.’ In this game, it didn’t matter what we were calling, it wasn’t working. I think I watch enough baseball. Baseball players deal with slumps all the time. The only thing you can do in a slump is go back to basics, go back to technique. If you’re a corner it’s all about technique, one of those two things. It’s about technique and it’s about confidence. We’re not playing with a lot of confidence at corner, and we need to tighten up our technique.”
Too little, too late for tightening technique?
“I think in this case, it has a lot to do with confidence, and we need to get back to that, and they need to know that first nine weeks, they were respected as — for what they put on tape, and the last three, we’ve been in a slump, and we need to get back to those first nine.”
It may be disconcerting for a lot of fans to hear a coordinator admit just how powerless he can be when it comes to fighting out of a team slump. I find it a refreshing dose of candor. It demonstrates the thin line between winning and losing in the NFL. Not to give Schwartz or the Eagles a pass on the need to upgrade talent and technique as well as making stronger calls on gameday, but a little better luck here and there and we’re not talking about a slump right now.
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BRISUKSEGG Fantasy Football Update:
Amazingly we are in the Grand Finals Week of BSE—seems like just a few weeks ago were watching the original draft meeting for the 6th Annual BSE campaign. Now we are down to two teams battling for the trophy—here are the semifinals results:WINNER’S BRACKET:#4 BAD JEWS BEARS (BJB)(7-5)Ben Gold144 #1 The Bri Slapper (Nads)(10-2)Jared Nixon104 BJB Line:Top Scorer:+7.9A. Luck 39Nads Line:Top Scorer:-7.9#3 NFC East Mr. Jinks (ATV) 142(8-4)Chris R142 #2 Oblong Nards (SPIF) 139(7-5)Spiffo139 ATV Line:Top Scorer:-12Ravens D/ST 53SPIF Line:Top Scorer:+12Packers D/ST 37ATV is going for his second title since 2012. Ben Gold and the Bad Jews Bears are seeking their first BSE crown in the history of their franchise.
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