Just now, Iggles_Phan said:

Based on watching them play, they are overrated on this metric in both categories.  

There aren’t many teams left with their starting qb.  If there were, I suspect this offense would rank a lot lower.

Every offense ranked better than the Eagles has had their starting qb all year.  And the vast majority of offenses ranked lower haven’t.  (although there are some notable exceptions exceptions, especially the Chiefs).

11 minutes ago, eagle45 said:

That's the playcalling issue.  They aggressively go for the jugular on a not-so-great look to Devonta earlier when they only needed 5 to move the chains.  Then they clam up with 2 QB runs and a screen late in the game when they know the defense is helpless, yet settle for 3.  I don't think the coaches have great insight in when to be aggressive and when to be conservative.  

11 minutes ago, ToastJenkins said:

With our WRs i would love to see a play action based offense, but not sure Hurts is good under center

See that's where a coach comes in handy.  One that knows how to run an NFL offense.

2 minutes ago, Desertbirds said:

The Eagles are giving up 150+ yards per game on the ground over the last several games. Given that our LBs suck and that the DL is supposed to a strength, is it time to try a 5-2 defense?

They seem to run a 5-2 quite a bit.  Though, i see them putting BG at NT way too often for it to be effective.

Just now, eagle45 said:

There aren’t many teams left with their starting qb.  If there were, I suspect this offense would rank a lot lower.

Every offense ranked better than the Eagles has had their starting qb all year.  And the vast majority of offenses ranked lower haven’t.  (although there are some notable exceptions exceptions, especially the Chiefs).

Yes, that's normally true. Teams ahead of us play in warm conditions (Miami, SF) or in a dome (Detroit). We've had 4 real rain games this year.

We all dislike the play-calling, but if I told people before the season we're be top 6-8 offense in every key metric that's a SB contender. We have a bottom 5 D that negates it.

9 minutes ago, e-a-g-l-e-s eagles! said:

I’d add the eagles offense frequently doesn’t use plays to build on and get the defense later in the drive or game. By that i mean they call plays just hoping it works then and now. In hopes to keep the chains moving and they are successful. A lot of the great offenses have plays that they’ll use in hopes the defense recognizes it later in the game and they have an adjustment to the play that gets them a big play or burns the defense. looks like most of time the eagles just randomly using an array of plays and not really building on them when trying to attack the defense. 

yeah ive only seen it a few times with like the fake slip screen and going deep or the change ups on the shove. i don't see them logically setting things up on a consistent basis

2 minutes ago, RLC said:

Yes, that's normally true. Teams ahead of us play in warm conditions (Miami, SF) or in a dome (Detroit). We've had 4 real rain games this year.

We all dislike the play-calling, but if I told people before the season we're be top 6-8 offense in every key metric that's a SB contender. We have a bottom 5 D that negates it.

Yes... and No.   Situationally, this team is brutally stupid on both sides of the ball. 

It's really not hard to figure out why we're losing.

3 minutes ago, RLC said:

Yes, that's normally true. Teams ahead of us play in warm conditions (Miami, SF) or in a dome (Detroit). We've had 4 real rain games this year.

We all dislike the play-calling, but if I told people before the season we're be top 6-8 offense in every key metric that's a SB contender. We have a bottom 5 D that negates it.

Crazy how historically bad the defense has been.

I can go on all day about schemes and talent...I have many questions but not enough answers for how to move forward into next year. My biggest takeaway was the lack of effort and not playing with sense of urgency...that is just inexcusable at this time of the season. 

2 minutes ago, Iggles_Phan said:

Yes... and No.   Situationally, this team is brutally stupid on both sides of the ball. 

The defense is so bad there's no room at all for error on offense.

1 minute ago, RLC said:

It's really not hard to figure out why we're losing.

Well, that's all true.  But weeks 1-11 the narrative was ignore the stats, ignore how it looks, they are 10-1 and that's all that matters.  Something around 9th is probably where they were and that was a disappointment.

Now weeks 12-17 when the record is terrible, we try to shed the record and say they are actually good because of those things.  

The offense isn't broken.  It's not bad.  It's very good.  But it is also disappointing.

12 minutes ago, Iggles_Phan said:

They paid Watson though.  Whoops.

They did pay him, but they aren’t winning with him. That was my point. He’s played in 6 games. Flacco has played in 5. Flacco has 500 more yds in passing in 1 fewer games and has better QBR & RTG numbers, not great but very effective. They aren’t winning because of a high priced QB was the point.

2 minutes ago, RLC said:

It's really not hard to figure out why we're losing.

The Eagles need to run their offense so they keep the ball as much as possible.  Long drives and eat up clock.  Whatever it takes to keep this defense off the field.  Its their only shot.

Just now, Joe Ball said:

They did pay him, but they aren’t winning with him. That was my point. He’s played in 6 games. Flacco has played in 5. Flacco has 500 more yds in passing in 1 fewer games and has better QBR & RTG numbers, not great but very effective. They aren’t winning because of a high priced QB was the point.

Agreed, but this was not their plan.

40 minutes ago, DaEagles4Life said:

Wait, you don't think Tom Brady is an elite QB

 

I absolutely do, I meant he’s not like Tom…

2 minutes ago, aptosbird said:

I can go on all day about schemes and talent...I have many questions but not enough answers for how to move forward into next year. My biggest takeaway was the lack of effort and not playing with sense of urgency...that is just inexcusable at this time of the season. 

I don't know about the effort thing.  They had a bunch of rookies in there and a guy who hasn't played all year. DL is spent and has been pretty much since the Bills game. They have no juice and not enough talent with experience.

2 minutes ago, eagle45 said:

The offense isn't broken.  It's not bad.  It's very good.  But it is also disappointing.

I think this is where I land to. The offense is good, but not elite, so it's disappointing because we should be.

3 hours ago, eagle45 said:

Well, that's all true.  But weeks 1-11 the narrative was ignore the stats, ignore how it looks, they are 10-1 and that's all that matters.  Something around 9th is probably where they were and that was a disappointment.

Now weeks 12-17 when the record is terrible, we try to shed the record and say they are actually good because of those things.  

The offense isn't broken.  It's not bad.  It's very good.  But it is also disappointing.

Oh... it's broken. 

This offense scores despite its brokenness due to their talent.  Again let us remember, with a tie game under 5 minutes with the ball and needing to both score and bleed clock they went to FOUR consecutive designed QB runs.  That's as broken as an NFL offense can be.

1 hour ago, RememberTheKoy said:

 

They aren't trading Hurts.  Go play in some traffic.  

Awww you saw the sweetest things.They would be smart to move him the same way Houston did. Guy has every weapon a QB could ever ask for with a very good OL and isn't worth 50 million. Mofo blew the Jets and Cards games by himself.No situational awareness and makes dumb decisions in the pocket. They may not move him but they would be smart to.

8 minutes ago, Desertbirds said:

The Eagles are giving up 150+ yards per game on the ground over the last several games. Given that our LBs suck and that the DL is supposed to a strength, is it time to try a 5-2 defense?

At the very least, they need to ditch the current D philosophy and base. I get mixing things up but Carter and Davis are a match made in heaven to play in a base 4-3. They are both mismatches for interior OL. I get that Carter can line up on the OT but I just think his best work is done inside. Davis can eat up blockers and let Carter get singled up on...or vice versa. Let Sweat be a base DE and bring in another DE. 

Not sure where Nolan Smith would play in a 4-3 though.

I really think what makes this defense "special" is the secondary.  We've had abysmal linebackers more years than not.  We've had DCs that were irrational, DCs that loved soft zones, DCs that were too conservative and didn't know what a blitz or stunt was.  

And while we have occasionally seen some bad CBs over the years, I don't think we've ever seen a group of DBs that were so collectively helpless in coverage.  And that's paired with a year of particularly bad LBs and a DL with significant conditioning issues with its most talented players.  But it starts with the secondary.  Teams figured out they could just dish the ball to a wide open target 1 second after the snap...and it fell apart from there.

2 minutes ago, Joe Ball said:

They did pay him, but they aren’t winning with him. That was my point. He’s played in 6 games. Flacco has played in 5. Flacco has 500 more yds in passing in 1 fewer games and has better QBR & RTG numbers, not great but very effective. They aren’t winning because of a high priced QB was the point.

The point is still going over your head. They built their current roster while having a 230 million dollar QB on the pay roll.

5 minutes ago, judunno said:

yeah ive only seen it a few times with like the fake slip screen and going deep or the change ups on the shove. i don't see them logically setting things up on a consistent basis

They really don’t. When they kept talking about oh we need more big plays. Part of the reason you weren’t getting bigger plays was because you weren’t setting them up to get bigger play. You just kept running the same type of things over and over again and assuming talent would win out on the play.  when the defense sees it again and they recognize it, they know how they want to defend it. hoping the talent is good enough to beat the defense that expects what is coming. Can win on offense that way against the cardinals and giants. They have bad personnel and/or bad coaching. But against better defensive coaches like niners or ravens that’s not likely to be good enough. There’s not building it’s just selecting plays randomly that we use over and over hoping our talent wins out. 

The only building they’ve done successfully this year is new stuff off the tush push 

1 minute ago, Desertbirds said:

The Eagles are giving up 150+ yards per game on the ground over the last several games. Given that our LBs suck and that the DL is supposed to a strength, is it time to try a 5-2 defense?

This has been the main issue of the defense of late. I don’t think there is a fix to it, as they seem to be getting manhandled at all levels. This D seems more like a flag football type of defense where they think touching or grabbing an invisible flag belt stops the play. They lack talent and everywhere, including the  overrated d-line. 
 

Hurts, the coaching and the offense can and should be better, but this defense doesn’t even deserve to be called a professional NFL defense. They are soft and talk about how good they could be, but ultimately they are one of the worst defenses to ever step foot onto a field. 
That has been the main reason we are now a wild card team. An offense can only do so much, and yes, with all that talent they should have done more, but the incompetence and flat out atrocious play by this so called defense has been the downfall of the entire team. IMO