Going up against the undefeated Vikings at home after coming off two straight relatively close losses?—that’s the kind of game in which winning by hook or crook can define a potentially positive direction in what many football critics have identified as a “rebuilding year” for the Philadelphia Eagles.
When you’re headed into Game 6 of any season, you already know where your weak points are—doesn’t matter if you’re playing the 2016 Minnesota Vikings or the 2014 Tennessee Titans.
It’s on you to make the changes in your approach to the game plan. The opponent team is making its changes, too.
Realistically we knew going into this season there would be bumps in the road. Injuries to key players, scheme breakdowns— they happen to every team. But the teams that seem to prevail instead of succumb in the face of such setbacks are the teams that end up in the dance at the end.
Easier said than done. And it begs the question—is your goal as a phan for the Eagles to make the playoffs this season? That is not a universal expectation. For some of us, we are satisfied to witness the evolution of a young franchise quarterback who graduates at season’s end from the school of hard knocks with all his limbs intact.
Frankly I have been spoiled by greater expectations. I was there in 2008 when a rookie QB from Delaware took an underdog team into the playoffs under the leadership of a rookie head coach. It can be done.
But as I recall, it took a lot of rebounding from things like a two-game losing streak and tough 1-point losses and overcoming late deficits against highly favored opponents to do so.
You think this test against Minnesota is the acid test? Hardly— it’s just one stepping stone in the upcoming fire pit:
The Eagles next 6 games:
vs Min (5-0)
at DAL (4-1)
at NY (3-3)
vs ATL (4-1)
at SEA (3-1)
vs GB (3-1)
Dig deep and punch the Vikings in the heart— that’s what I want to see from Doug Pederson, Jim Schwartz and Dave Fipp and their troops this Sunday. Send a message to your fan base and the rest of the league as you embark on this Autumn Fire Walk.
The challenge of adjustment by the Eagles is better summarized by our old friend Dave Stoessel at Eagles Addict:
“Good coaches are always a step ahead of their opponents. On offense, they will scheme in new looks, plays and philosophies to attack a specific defense. Or, they are good at anticipating what a defense may try to attack and scheme ways to exploit such an attack.”
“The Patriots are one of the best, if not the best, at doing this on a week-to-week basis. You can point to Tom Brady all you want, but they are very good at being unpredictable on offense because they scheme something different almost every week.”
“Just ask fantasy football players who have Patriots’ skill players besides Gronk and Brady. You just never know what you’re gonna get!”
Great point by Dave Stoessel, who deserves more acclaim than he has gotten so far in the media circus. He states the fundamental art of war, which is to think one step ahead of your opponent.
“Adjusting is the name of the game in the NFL. Being unable to make in-game adjustments was something Eagles fans used to go crazy with when Andy Reid was head coach. That continued under Chip Kelly as well. While with the Eagles, neither of those guys were particularly adept at making adjustments either in-game and sometimes on a weekly basis. Predictability was a hallmark.”
“Pederson is now charged with making adjustments not only in-game plans, but with figuring out how best to adjust to life without Lane Johnson. For reasons that are supposedly based on how he has looked in practice, Pederson and Co. switched his plan from moving Barbre out to RT, and plugging in either Wisniewski or Seumalo at LG, to simply plugging in a fifth-round rookie at RT.”
Dave has gone on record as saying he prefers “Plan A” with Barbre moving to RT.
“Compensating by keeping in an extra blocker or two has a ripple effect on this offense that it cannot afford. The Eagles’ receivers have enough trouble getting open and the fewer of them out in routes translates into Wentz not having anywhere to go with the ball most of the time.”
“Adjustment number two has to be play calling/scheming from week to week. The Eagles’ offense simply does not have enough talent to be predictable. Whether it’s accurately identifying a defense’s weakness and exploiting it or simply scheming one or two players to be the focus of the offense on a given week, Pederson needs to become unpredictable.”
“Furthermore, if his initial plan does not appear to be working early on, he needs to have the flexibility within himself to scrap it and change his attack based on what the defense is showing.”
“As for the defense, the past two weeks has been a tale of two halves as far as giving up points is concerned. In each of the past two weeks, the Eagles’ defense has given up 21 first-half points versus 3 and 6 in the second half respectively.”
“Schwartz needs to make adjustments in how to attack an offense from the get-go. These early deficits are proving to be too much to overcome. First up, he has to figure out how his defense went from being sturdy against the run to being a sieve. Against the Redskins, a team that has struggled to run the ball this year, it looked like the Hoover Dam broke.”
“Besides that, what has happened to the pass rush? Kirk Cousins seemed to rarely be pressured all throughout the game. Connor Barwin, Vinny Curry, Brandon Graham…where are thee? Pressuring the passer is always a defense’s goal. It’s also a risk/reward situation if you have to blitz often to get that pressure. However, if the defensive front four are simply not generating pressure, you’re going to have to scheme it.”
“From here on out, being able to adjust on both offense and defense is going to be key for the Eagles. It will be needed in order to compensate as much as possible for this team’s weaknesses.”
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
