Brian Johnson Offensive Coordinator discussion

[The Holy Vagabond]

He had a couple wrinkles in this game that I hadn’t seen this year he ran at least 3 plays with both rbs in the backfield. One was a sweep/pass where gainwell was the lead blocker. Swift gained about 15 on the run. So he’s learning. 
 

needs to be better situationally, late in games though. 

[UK_EaglesFan89]

2 hours ago, The Holy Vagabond said:

needs to be better situationally, late in games though. 

Yeah I actually thought the game plan was good yesterday. The offense was good and they mostly had their way. But at the end I think he needed to be more aggressive and not be so conservative.

[EagleVA]

9 hours ago, VeeMak said:

3rd down and needing to eat clock late in the 4th, Brian Johnson be like:

 

I'm surprised he didn't learn his lesson from the first Commanders game where they scored the TD when they should have been eating the clock and kick the game winning FG.

Yesterday, 3rd and 3 for the first down that would have been a wrap and a bomb is thrown to Brown, I find it hard to believe that anyone can be that stupid.

[judunno]

2 minutes ago, EagleVA said:

I'm surprised he didn't learn his lesson from the first Commanders game where they scored the TD when they should have been eating the clock and kick the game winning FG.

Yesterday, 3rd and 3 for the first down that would have been a wrap and a bomb is thrown to Brown, I find it hard to believe that anyone can be that stupid.

Yup pretty sure Johnson told hurts to go deep there. Yup all Johnson's fault.

[VeeMak]

1 hour ago, judunno said:

Yup pretty sure Johnson told hurts to go deep there. Yup all Johnson's fault.

Truth is, we will never know and it ultimately didn’t matter in the outcome of the game.  I listened to the pressers after the game and I never heard anyone in the media ask about the play.  I am 50/50 on this one.  Siri preaches staying aggressive and it’s the personality of this team on offense to stay aggressive which could easily suggest that this was a called play.  At the same time, Hurts may have seen something pre-snap and wanted to take a shot there.  Either way, it was dumb situational football.  I was yelling QB sneak (I hate the media label Tush Push or Brotherly Shove) at the top of my lungs…they would have had 4th and short and run the sneak again, first down, game over no drama. That’s a play that they should be running on those 3rd and 3’s or less anyway.  

[Eagles_ftw]

5 minutes ago, VeeMak said:

I listened to the pressers after the game and I never heard anyone in the media ask about the play.

Because the Philly media are morons, they won't ask crap like this but they'll ask Hurts about his knee injury 500 times.

[birdman#12]

I don't think Johnson does nearly enough to take advantage of the talent the eagles have......and he lacks creativity.

But being 8-1 with a top 5 offense, it's hard to complain.

But, I think the eagles leave points on the field every game, obviously due to turnover, but with some really poor situational play calling.  

And when the defense is struggling in the passing game with all the injuries, controlling ToP and making some extra first downs would make some of these games.....less tense.

As a fan, I want to see a VERY comfortable margin of victory......but there are different kinds of great teams......some overwhelm you with offense and a decent defense, some do it with tough defense and an opportunistic offense.

Then there is the 2023 Eagles who are more like a python......they slowing overtake you and then squeeze the life out of you.......sometimes running the ball down your throat, sometimes with a efficient pass game, sometimes by shutting down your ground game or destroying your offensive line.  

I think the bye week came at a great time......they really need some heal time before the next 8 games, especially the next 4.

 

[Mat]

On 11/7/2023 at 7:09 AM, UK_EaglesFan89 said:

Yeah I actually thought the game plan was good yesterday. The offense was good and they mostly had their way. But at the end I think he needed to be more aggressive and not be so conservative.

The funny thing is no one seems to be happy. There are a number of people arguing the opposite to what you're saying. They take shots and a number of people whine that they should have been conservative, they run a conservative play and people will whine they should be more aggressive. Sirianni will more often than not lean towards the aggressive side with his play calling. I think we're so used to it now with both Doug and Sirianni leaning this way, you look at other teams (the Bills for one) that punt from just past midfield on 4th and 2. 

The two plays that stand out from that last quarter are the screen to Smith and the bomb to AJ. The screen to Smith was the right call because they were backed up, it was a quick throw and it gave them a shot to pick up the first down basically starting the drive in their end zone. The bomb to AJ also made sense. You had him one on one outside and he had his man beat but the throw was off. You run the ball (Swift was averaging under 3 yards a tote) and it's short, what happens then? Hurts went 17-23, threw for 2 TD's and they were 50% on third down (they're also 50% for the season which is a league best) against a team that is top 5 in points allowed per game and has a knack for causing turnovers and scoring with them. It wasn't a perfect game, but it they put up 28 points against a pretty good D. 

Swift hasn't been great the last 5 weeks, I don't know if it's a combination of the O-Line or Swift hitting the mean and not being as good as he looked in the first couple of weeks. The bye has come at the right time and they play a pretty great D in the Chiefs in their next game. 

[time2rock]

[judunno]

57 minutes ago, time2rock said:

Only issue is the red zone and I feel like they've been cleaning that up lately.

[EagleVA]

On 11/6/2023 at 8:27 PM, birdman#12 said:

Then there is the 2023 Eagles who are more like a python......they slowing overtake you and then squeeze the life out of you.......sometimes running the ball down your throat, 

The Eagles don't have the back(s) to run the ball consistently, if they had such a back they could get by with their piss poor pass defense because they'd keep their opponent on the sidelines looking.

You learn the value of a strong run game in Football 101, apparently peanut head has never taken the course.

 

[EagleVA]

On 11/6/2023 at 4:40 PM, judunno said:

Yup pretty sure Johnson told hurts to go deep there. Yup all Johnson's fault.

I have no idea whose fault it is, all I know is it was dumb, in the words of Herm Edwards, "you play to win the game" not to make splash plays.

[judunno]

40 minutes ago, EagleVA said:

I have no idea whose fault it is, all I know is it was dumb, in the words of Herm Edwards, "you play to win the game" not to make splash plays.

They won

[judunno]

11 hours ago, EagleVA said:

The Eagles don't have the back(s) to run the ball consistently, if they had such a back they could get by with their piss poor pass defense because they'd keep their opponent on the sidelines looking.

You learn the value of a strong run game in Football 101, apparently peanut head has never taken the course.

 

You do realize that the Eagles are already top 3 in the league in avg TOP correct? Oh they're also 8-1 :) Oh and their RB is #3 in the league in rushing. Problem isn't the backs... problem has been the OL being out of sync as Kelce has said himself. I expect the OL to be back in sync when Cam returns and they get a little healthier. I also expect Penny to get some more carries in the 2nd half of the season. So whoever peanut head is .. they're doing pretty well having the best record in the league and all.

[The Holy Vagabond]

20 hours ago, time2rock said:

Look. I’m not saying BJ has done a bad job. Far from it. But I don’t want to get into a "stats prove how good he is” argument. Gannon was running around acting like he was a great DC because the eagles had 70 sacks last year. And we all knew Gannon was the weak link and the eagles got many of those sacks in spite of him and his scheme and play-calling. 
 

I think Johnson is still learning on the fly a bit and as long as he gets better each week (which he has) I’ll be fine with him. I’d like to see the late game situations get better. But other than that, so far he’s been fine. 

[EagleVA]

12 hours ago, judunno said:

You do realize that the Eagles are already top 3 in the league in avg TOP correct? Oh they're also 8-1 🙂 Oh and their RB is #3 in the league in rushing. Problem isn't the backs...

Where was the that #3 rushing attack during the 3 consecutive 3-and-outs while trying to close a game, seems to me it was no where to be found and that's a problem.  

You see, when you're trying to close a game out you need physical runners, there isn't 1 physical running back on the team, again, that's a problem

[D-Shiznit]

Frank Reich is likely canned after/during the season.

Bring him back, he was an excellent OC.

[Eagles_ftw]

Just now, D-Shiznit said:

Frank Reich is likely canned after/during the season.

Bring him back, he was an excellent OC.

They won't.  I'd put money on it if I wasn't broke.

[rrfierce]

3 hours ago, D-Shiznit said:

Frank Reich is likely canned after/during the season.

Bring him back, he was an excellent OC.

He WAS when he was here.

Is he still?

[EazyEaglez]

4 hours ago, D-Shiznit said:

Frank Reich is likely canned after/during the season.

Bring him back, he was an excellent OC.

I really do think people continently forget that first season Reich was here and how bad the Eagles looked at times. The same for Steichen. Ironically Johnson’s numbers are virtually the same as Steichen year two, but he’s dealing with an offense that can barely run the ball because Jalen is hurt. I also think people forgot some of the stinker games from last year too. The second Giants game, the Bears, Colts, Commanders, and Texans games were bad just off the top of my head. The Saints game without Hurts was terrible as well and Steichen didn’t really have to face some of the defenses Johnson has to. 

[UK_EaglesFan89]

9 minutes ago, EazyEaglez said:

but he’s dealing with an offense that can barely run the ball because Jalen is hurt

I do think some of that is on Johnson though. I agree with your overall point that look the stats show this is a top top offense. Johnson in his first year is doing a really good job overall. And the run game struggles aren’t just on him but I do think some of it is. He needs to be more creative and patient with it.

[EazyEaglez]

4 minutes ago, UK_EaglesFan89 said:

I do think some of that is on Johnson though. I agree with your overall point that look the stats show this is a top top offense. Johnson in his first year is doing a really good job overall. And the run game struggles aren’t just on him but I do think some of it is. He needs to be more creative and patient with it.

His backs aren’t helping either with these Red Zone fumbles. The turnovers are up this season and that’s hurting the offense just as much as anything. Sloppy overall play is more on the head coach than the coordinators IMO. 

[UK_EaglesFan89]

4 hours ago, EazyEaglez said:

His backs aren’t helping either with these Red Zone fumbles. The turnovers are up this season and that’s hurting the offense just as much as anything. Sloppy overall play is more on the head coach than the coordinators IMO. 

Oh I don’t disagree and that’s definitely on the players. But then take that Swift fumble late on Sunday… What was that play call even about? It was going nowhere despite the fumble.

[judunno]

12 hours ago, EagleVA said:

Where was the that #3 rushing attack during the 3 consecutive 3-and-outs while trying to close a game, seems to me it was no where to be found and that's a problem.  

You see, when you're trying to close a game out you need physical runners, there isn't 1 physical running back on the team, again, that's a problem

Kelce said they're not in sync I believe Kelce. All you have to do is watch some of the All-22 and see that the OL has been tripping all over themselves and missing critical blocks. Physical backs also get blown up in the backfield. The Eagles do it all the time to opponents. We saw Brown literally knock his own guy out on his feet. That's not a physicality thing. That's an execution thing. They were closing out games fine before Cam went down and things got out of wack.

[EazyEaglez]

4 hours ago, UK_EaglesFan89 said:

Oh I don’t disagree and that’s definitely on the players. But then take that Swift fumble late on Sunday… What was that play call even about? It was going nowhere despite the fumble.

I agree there are time when Johnson’s offense has also left me scratching my head. I don’t really know what the plan was on that play. There was another play earlier too when Hurts and Swift did not have a smooth transition with the ball. It looked like Hurts wanted to keep it, but Swift didn’t let the ball go and he pulled Jalen with him a little. I’m not sure how much of this is poor execution by the players, miscommunication with the players, or just bad play calling as a whole. I can’t stand that stupid empty back Hurts run they like to do. Retire that play immediately. Still Johnson is in his first year as an OC and he’s calling the plays. That’s big and in todays NFL it isn’t normal. We have seen it take some time for the OC to really find his flow. He’s also trying to understand his players especially with so many changing parts. On top of this his quarterback has lost a major part of his game. I don’t know how many veteran coordinators would be flawless with this situation.