Blogger Blitz: Different vibe for Eagles' D

If you turn the ball over nine times in your first two games but win them both, your defense must be doing something right. Such is the case with the Philadelphia Eagles, whose defense is playing at a much higher level than it was at this time last season. Whether it's the addition of DeMeco Ryans at middle linebacker or the depth and energy brought in by all of the rookies who are seeing significant time, the Eagles' defense has a different feel about it this year. In this week's Blogger Blitz video, I talk about how different it felt in the Eagles' locker room Sunday, with players talking about specific defensive schemes and the success they did or didn't have with them as opposed to saying things like, "We need somebody to step up."

For example, an energized cornerback Nnamdi Asomugha said the plan the Eagles made last week was for him to cover Baltimore receiver Anquan Boldin and for Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie to cover Torrey Smith, who's a faster straight-line runner while Boldin is a little more shifty. The Eagles settled on those matchups but also decided that, when Boldin went inside, they'd leave him to rookie Brandon Boykin because they wanted to keep Boykin on the slot receiver. Now, that did leave Asomugha on Jacoby Jones, who beat him for a touchdown and nearly beat him for another. And that's something to watch going forward -- whether high-end speed guys are tough matchups for Asomugha at this stage in his career. But I don't recall one time last season when an Eagles defensive player talked so enthusiastically about the way he was working and planning in conjunction with his coaches and teammates in advance of the game. Not to say it wasn't happening, but everyone seems more engaged this season.

Because Asomugha is my example, of course I think it's possible that new secondary coach Todd Bowles is a part of this new vibe. And certainly, everybody has to be more comfortable in Juan Castillo's second season as defensive coordinator, if only because that seems less weird this season. It's a combination of many factors that has the Eagles playing very tight defense so far, and if the offense ever gets its ball-security act together, the Eagles could be one of the better teams in the league.

20 Sep, 2012

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Source: http://espn.go.com/blog/nfceast/post/_/id/43382/blogger-blitz-different-vibe-for-eagles-d
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09.04 | 0 komentar | Read More

The bleaker, the better for these Giants

So let's see. Here's a partial list of the New York Giants who didn't make the trip to Carolina for tonight's game against the Panthers: Their starting running back, their starting right tackle and two of their top three wide receivers, one of whom was just named NFC Offensive Player of the Week.

Yeah, it looks as though the Giants have things set up just the way they like them.

Desperate.

You don't think the Giants can beat Cam Newton & Co. tonight without Hakeem Nicks, Ahmad Bradshaw, David Diehl and Domenik Hixon and with all of the problems they already had before this rash of bad injury news? Well, then you haven't been paying very close attention. These Giants seem to thrive when things look the bleakest, when their chances look the worst. Of course they'd rather have all of those guys healthy and ready to play, but with this group sometimes it takes a run of bad fortune to one part of their roster to bring out the best in the rest of it.

And there's plenty of latent stuff here. The Giants' vaunted pass rush has been quiet in the first two games. They have just four sacks, and only one of those from a defensive end. Jason Pierre-Paul has played like a maniac, but they continue to wait for Justin Tuck and Osi Umenyiora to contribute on the other side. Cornerback Corey Webster, the star of the secondary last season, has been ordinary while the Giants have shuffled replacements around at the other cornerback spot to overcome injuries there. The running game continues to plod, even as the offensive line believes itself to be capable of bigger things. And even with Nicks out, they still have Victor Cruz, who showed once again last week that he's always an 80-yard touchdown just waiting to flip the switch from potential to kinetic.

The Giants are more than capable of winning tonight's game in spite of their problems, because many of the solutions to those problems can be found if the players they do have simply play better. In microcosm, Sunday's game offered the perfect example. Quarterback Eli Manning, their roster's rock, threw three interceptions in the first half only to come alive in the second and lead the Giants to 25 fourth-quarter points and a comeback victory over the Buccaneers.

"A lesser group of men," Giants coach Tom Coughlin said Sunday afternoon, "would have had trouble."

But this group of Giants doesn't get down or upset when things aren't going their way. They've seen it too many times, have seen it turn out OK too many times, to disbelieve. This game tonight can't help but remind you of Week 9 of last season, when they went to New England without Nicks, Bradshaw and center David Baas and managed a comeback victory over the Patriots. They weren't supposed to win that day either. They were supposed to be outmanned. They were down by three points and on their own 20-yard line with 1:21 left in the game. But Manning just marched down the field, finding Ramses Barden and Jake Ballard for key catches, and won them the game with a touchdown.

Of course, then they lost five of their next six games to drop to 7-7, fell behind the Jets in Week 15, fell behind the 49ers in the NFC Championship Game and fell behind the Patriots in the Super Bowl. These Giants either don't like to make it easy or don't know how. They don't seem to play as well as they can until they absolutely have to.

When they have to, though, they've consistently shown a champion's ability to do just that. And there's no way anybody in their locker room tonight will be hanging their heads about the list of key guys who didn't make the trip. These Giants greet their troubles with a collective shrug. It's a Thursday game, so Nicks' sore foot didn't have time to feel all the way better after he played 73 snaps and caught 10 passes for 199 yards on it Sunday. These things happen. On the flip side, he gets nine days between this game and his next one, so maybe that'll take care of the problem once and for all.

Would they prefer to have him? Of course. But spending the night thinking like that isn't going to help them beat the Panthers. The Giants have a coaching staff that excels at keeping them focused on the important things, the present things, the things they can control. They have a quarterback for whom no deficit is too intimidating, for whom no set of circumstances is dire enough to cost him his cool. They will lean on those things, and on the depth they have on their roster (unproven though much of it may be), and if they win this game tonight in Carolina without 27 percent of their starting offense, it's not going to surprise them and it shouldn't surprise anyone else.

This is simply the way the Giants roll. If things weren't tough, or bleak, or desperate, I'm not sure they'd know what to do with themselves. Just when it looks as though they can't possibly win, that's when they have you right where they want you.

20 Sep, 2012

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Source: http://espn.go.com/blog/nfceast/post/_/id/43376/the-bleaker-the-better-for-these-giants
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06.34 | 0 komentar | Read More

Breakfast links: Nicks latest fallen Giant

Look alive, folks. There's a game tonight in our division, even if the Giants might not end up having enough guys to play it. That means we'll be here all day and all night. As I believe I've mentioned, I am not in Carolina. The coverage of tonight's Giants game is in the capable hands of the good folks at ESPNNewYork.com. But I will be watching, of course, and tweeting and blogging and all of those things you've come to expect of me.

Speaking of which, links.

Philadelphia Eagles

The latest challenge for Brandon Graham, who has faced no shortage of them in his brief time in the NFL, is coming to grips with his still-limited role in the Eagles' defensive line rotation. Graham has played well, but he's playing behind a lot of very good pass-rushers and knows he needs to bide his time.

The Eagles were without one of their starting wide receivers last year when they played Arizona, and Jeremy Maclin's continued hip problems mean there's a chance they could be without one this Sunday in Arizona as well. Maclin played last week after hardly practicing, but he re-injured the hip in Sunday's game and it's possible he could stand a week off to let it heal.

Dallas Cowboys

I think it's great that Jason Hatcher is sticking up for himself and his teammates. Hatcher's played great in both games so far, and after an offseason when he openly wondered where the leaders were in the Cowboys' locker room, he's done exactly what someone who wondered that should do -- he's stepped forward to become a leader. But if he's going to insist the Cowboys' front seven didn't get pushed around by the Seahawks on Sunday, especially in the run game, he's watched different film than I have. Marshawn Lynch doesn't have the second half he had if the Cowboys are really "knocking them back." But again, good for Hatcher for his positive outlook.

Here's an admission for you guys: If I could go back and do this week's All-NFC East Team over again, I'd take out Victor Cruz and put in Miles Austin at that second wide receiver spot. Austin's played two very good games, and I think because he's been hurt so much and a lot of the focus (for good or ill) has shifted to other wide receivers in Dallas over the past few years, we've forgotten how good Austin can be.

Washington Redskins

You know the scene in The Natural where Roy Hobbs finally gets his first at-bat and you can hear the radio broadcast of the game while it's going on and the announcer says, "Hobbs doesn't like the call. Well, welcome to the majors, Mr. Hobbs?" That's what came to mind when I read this about Robert Griffin III saying he felt like the Rams' "unprofessional" and "dirty" game plan was to get after him and hit him as much as they could. Rams aren't going to be the last team to try that, I don't think.

Griffin got high marks in Rich Campbell's offensive game review, as you'd expect. So did center Will Montgomery and second-year wide receiver Leonard Hankerson, who could see more reps in the coming weeks in the wake of Josh Morgan-gate and if Pierre Garcon's foot injury lingers. Hankerson was a starting wide receiver on the coaches' depth chart when training camp began, and they think he's capable of big things.

New York Giants

After announcing early in the day that running back Ahmad Bradshaw, tackle David Diehl and receiver Domenik Hixon would all miss tonight's game due to injuries, the Giants stunned everyone by announcing late in the afternoon that wide receiver Hakeem Nicks would too. Seems Nicks' foot injury needs more than three days in between games. Tough break, losing the reigning NFC Offensive Player of the Week, but Ohm Youngmisuk says this means Ramses Barden's time to produce is at hand.

On the good-news front, it appears Prince Amukamara is ready to play tonight. He's listed as probable but says he expects to play. Which is good. They need as many bodies as they can get on defense with the offense as shredded as it is.

20 Sep, 2012

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Source: http://espn.go.com/blog/nfceast/post/_/id/43372/breakfast-links-nicks-latest-fallen-giant
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05.04 | 0 komentar | Read More

Are the Eagles the 'real deal?'

Our outstanding ESPN Stats & Information blog has a new weekly feature called "The real deal," in which they examine both sides of one of the week's games or issues. This week, they are debating the matchup of two of the NFC's four 2-0 teams -- the Philadelphia Eagles' game in Arizona against the Cardinals. Adam Grigely points out that the Cardinals are 9-2 in their past 11 games including a game last year against the Eagles. You'll remember that game as the one for which Andy Reid suspended DeSean Jackson for missing a team meeting and Michael Vick broke his ribs. One of many strong contenders for the rock-bottom game of the Eagles' 2011 season:

Looking back at last season's matchup, the Cardinals held Vick to a 47 completion percentage and just 128 yards. They picked him off twice and did not yield a passing touchdown. Vick registered a 24.5 QBR in that game, his second-worst in the last two seasons.

All good, solid, statistical points, but it's also possible that the thing the Cardinals did that most limited Vick in that game was break his ribs early. He clearly was not himself as the game went along, and after it was over we learned that he had been playing hurt. He missed the following three games because of the injury. A healthy Vick, with Jackson at his disposal, may well have played quite differently. And Marty Callinan points out that the big-play ability of guys like Vick and Jackson is something the Cardinals don't have on their side:

More than a third of the Cardinals' rushing yards and their two longest rushes in 2012 have come from non-running backs. The Cardinals had just seven runs of 20 yards or more in 2011 (tied for 24th-fewest), and have zero this year. Eagles running back LeSean McCoy had twice as many big plays of his own on the ground last year, and has two already in 2012.

The same story can be told in the passing game. The Cardinals are one of six teams without a pass play of 30 or more yards this season while Vick and the Eagles already have two from Jackson and another from Jeremy Maclin.

We do not know if Maclin will play, as he missed practice Wednesday with the hip injury that's been bugging him since the opener. But we have to assume Jackson will make all of the meetings this week and be in the lineup, and so far Vick's been able to stay healthy and they still have McCoy. If the Eagles' offense can hit a couple of those big plays, it could put up a number the Cardinals' offense (behind former Eagles quarterback Kevin Kolb) simply cannot attain. But if the game remains close and low-scoring, it could certainly go either way, especially if the Eagles keep up their 4.5-per-game turnover pace.

20 Sep, 2012

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Source: http://espn.go.com/blog/nfceast/post/_/id/43365/are-the-eagles-the-real-deal
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14.04 | 0 komentar | Read More

Injury meets opportunity for Giants

The New York Giants made it official Wednesday, ruling starting running back Ahmad Bradshaw, right tackle David Diehl and wide receiver Domenik Hixon out of Thursday's game against the Carolina Panthers due to their various injuries. That's two offensive starters and their No. 3 wide receiver in a game that figures to offer the opportunity for lots of offense on both sides, and, no, that's not good.

However, the injuries do open up opportunity for several other players who may well be poised to take advantage of them. In particular, with the way the Giants' running game has struggled since the start of the 2011 season, circumstances that require them to try solutions other than Bradshaw and Diehl might not be altogether unwelcome. A look at the people who could get a chance to play their way into larger roles Thursday as a result of the injuries:

RB Andre Brown. The team's fourth-round pick in the Hakeem Nicks draft of 2009 (there's a theme building here, by the way), Brown didn't do much in his first three years behind Bradshaw and Brandon Jacobs on the depth chart. But he beat out D.J. Ware for the backup running back job in training camp, and he ran well in relief of Bradshaw on Sunday against Tampa Bay. Thrilled to finally get his shot as a starter in the state in which he played college football at North Carolina State, Brown should see the bulk of the carries, including those on the goal line, in Thursday's game. The Giants have been coy about Bradshaw's status, but if Brown plays well and Bradshaw is slow to heal, this might not be the last you hear of him.

RB David Wilson. A lot of people assumed this year's first-round pick would be Bradshaw's backup or maybe even share carries with him. And Wilson was the first back to relieve Bradshaw in the season opener. But he fumbled early in that game and didn't see the field again until Week 2, when it was clear the coaches trusted Brown more. They have some plays in which they feel Wilson can help them, and you never know -- it could be that he's the featured guy Thursday. At the very least, he could get a chance to prove he can hold onto the ball and make things happen in the run game.

OT Will Beatty. One of two Giants second-round picks in that aforementioned 2009 draft, Beatty was the starting left tackle last year before an eye injury ended his season after 10 games. Back problems cost him his starting job this summer, but with Diehl out, it looks as though Sean Locklear will swing over to right tackle and make room for Beatty to get another shot as the starter at left tackle. Surely the Giants would like to see him play well enough to convince them to leave him there for the foreseeable future and beyond.

WR Ramses Barden. The Giants' third-round pick in -- you guessed it! -- 2009, Barden had a hard time finding the field in his first three years as injuries slowed his development. But he showed a lot in training camp and in the preseason, and when he's been in games, Eli Manning has seemed comfortable throwing to him. His size gives him an advantage over defensive backs, and he showed in the preseason that he knows how to use his body to shield the ball from the defender. He could be the one who takes over Hixon's snaps.

WR Rueben Randle. This year's second-round pick is a player for whom the Giants have high hopes, though there haven't been any indications yet that he's ready for an increased role. But Hixon's injury opens up opportunity in general, and if Randle gets on the field he'll have his best chance yet to show what he can do.

20 Sep, 2012

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Source: http://espn.go.com/blog/nfceast/post/_/id/43358/injury-meets-opportunity-for-giants
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13.04 | 0 komentar | Read More

How the Seahawks bottled up Dez Bryant

As I've already written, my first impression when I watched the Dallas Cowboys' loss to the Seahawks on Sunday was that Seattle beat them by challenging them physically and winning all over the field. Specifically, though, this worked with the big Seahawks defensive backs against the Cowboys' wide receivers. Even more specifically, Tim MacMahon has a look at the way those defensive backs handled Dez Bryant all day by jamming him at the line of scrimmage:

Brandon Browner (6-4, 221) and Richard Sherman (6-3, 195) jammed Bryant at the line of scrimmage on the majority of snaps in Sunday's loss. He didn't catch a single pass against that type of coverage. He simply didn't get open, with Tony Romo targeting Bryant only twice after a corner jammed him.

"That's what good press corners do to you," coach Jason Garrett said. "You have to keep fighting and keep battling. Typically, what happens is the game feels a little uncomfortable to you when you play a style of defense like that. It's hard. It's not like you have free access and you just get into your route and everything is comfortable. Everything's hard."

The good news for Bryant and the Cowboys is that very few teams, if any, have cornerbacks big and physical enough to play that style of coverage against Bryant. The bad news is that, having seen it on film, other teams may be more inclined to challenge Bryant at the line of scrimmage even if they normally wouldn't play that way, figuring it's the best way to get him off his game. Bryant has the physical tools to make defensive backs look very bad if he can get off the line against them, but if all you need to do is wrestle with him at little bit at the snap in order to get him into a game-long funk, it may be worth a shot.

This is part of Bryant's development, of course, in his third year as an NFL wide receiver. But that third year is generally a big one for a receiver's development, and the Cowboys need Bryant to be able to win his matchups consistently, even if he's seeing a variety of different coverages. As with everything else, the extent to which Bryant learns from Sunday's bad experience will determine whether it was a valuable educational tool or a sign of more trouble to come down the road.

20 Sep, 2012

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Source: http://espn.go.com/blog/nfceast/post/_/id/43353/how-the-seahawks-bottled-up-dez-bryant
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11.35 | 0 komentar | Read More

Giants' Nicks NFC Offensive Player of Week

The NFL announced Wednesday that New York Giants wide receiver Hakeem Nicks is the NFC Offensive Player of the Week. Nicks caught 10 passes for 199 yards and a touchdown in the Giants' comeback victory over the Buccaneers on Sunday. It's the fourth time in his career he's caught at least 10 passes in one game, including the most recent Super Bowl.

The NFL could have picked any of three Giants for this award. Nicks' fellow wideout, Victor Cruz, caught 11 passes for 179 yards, including an 80-yard touchdown. Nicks and Cruz are the first teammates in NFL history to catch at least 10 passes and amass at least 175 receiving yards in the same game. As you might imagine, quarterback Eli Manning also had big numbers in this game. His 510 passing yards matched the ninth-highest single-game total in league history, and the Giants became the first team to pass for 500 yards and have two receivers each surpass 150 since the 1951 Los Angeles Rams of Norm Van Brocklin, Tom Fears and Elroy (Crazy Legs) Hirsch.

But Manning threw the three interceptions, and Nicks had the bigger game between the receivers, including a 23-yard touchdown catch and a 50-yard reception that set up Andre Brown's game-winning touchdown run. He's the first Giants receiver to win this award since Plaxico Burress in 2005. Two other Giants were named NFC Offensive Player of the Week last year -- Manning in Week 3 and running back Ahmad Bradshaw in Week 6.

The award caps Nicks' comeback from the broken bone in his foot that knocked him out of spring practice and training camp. He played in the Giants' Week 1 loss to Dallas, as he'd said he would, but this is the clearest statement yet that the foot won't hold him back from all he can do on the field.

19 Sep, 2012

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Source: http://espn.go.com/blog/nfceast/post/_/id/43349/giants-nicks-nfc-offensive-player-of-week
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09.04 | 0 komentar | Read More

All-NFC East Team: Week 2 Update

Eli Manning made it tough. I'm not going to deny that. His performance in the fourth quarter in Sunday's comeback victory over Tampa Bay was nearly enough to get him the starting quarterback spot on this week's edition of the All-Division Team. His yardage total of 510 for the game was the ninth-highest in league history and is only 16 yards short of Robert Griffin III's two-game yardage total so far. When I sat down to make this week's team, I did so on the assumption that Manning would regain his 2011 season-ending spot as the quarterback.

But then I remembered the disclaimer that nobody reads: This All-Division Team is not simply a roundup of the best performances of the past week. It's an assessment of overall season performance to date. Griffin has a higher completion percentage, fewer interceptions and -- yes, this matters -- is the division's fourth-leading rusher with 124 yards on 20 carries. Manning has proven more over his career, obviously, and yes he's being asked to do more in the passing game than Griffin is in Washington. But it's not as though Griffin's being asked to play like Alex Smith. He's made big plays and protected the ball, and in the end this week's spot goes to the guy who's played eight good quarters so far this year as opposed to one astoundingly brilliant one.

One of the results of this, I found when I tallied things up at the end, is what I believe to be a first. The Redskins have the most players (eight) on this week's All-NFC East team. The Giants and Eagles each have seven and the Cowboys only have five for some reason, including their punter. Odd, since the Cowboys' Week 1 game was perhaps the best all-around game played by anyone in the division to this point. Strange how these things shake out sometimes.

Anyway the rest of the team here, and then the explanations after:

Quarterback: Robert Griffin III, Washington Redskins (Last week: Griffin)

Running back: LeSean McCoy, Philadelphia Eagles (DeMarco Murray)

Wide receiver: Hakeem Nicks and Victor Cruz, New York Giants (Kevin Ogletree and Jeremy Maclin)

Tight end: Brent Celek, Eagles (Martellus Bennett)

Fullback: Darrel Young, Washington Redskins (Young)

Left tackle: Trent Williams, Redskins (Williams)

Left guard: Evan Mathis, Eagles (Mathis)

Center: Will Montgomery, Redskins (Jason Kelce)

Right guard: Chris Snee, Giants (Snee)

Right tackle: Todd Herremans, Eagles (Herremans)

Defensive end: Jason Pierre-Paul, Giants; Jason Hatcher, Cowboys (Pierre-Paul, Hatcher)

Defensive tackle: Fletcher Cox, Eagles; Rocky Bernard, Giants (Bernard, Cox)

Outside linebacker: Ryan Kerrigan, Redskins; DeMarcus Ware, Dallas Cowboys (Kerrigan, Ware)

Inside linebacker: DeMeco Ryans, Eagles; Sean Lee, Cowboys (Lee, Ryans)

Cornerback: Josh Wilson, Redskins; Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie, Eagles (Rodgers-Cromartie, Wilson)

Safety: Kenny Phillips, Giants; Gerald Sensabaugh, Cowboys (Kurt Coleman, Antrel Rolle)

Kicker: Billy Cundiff, Redskins (Cundiff)

Punter: Chris Jones, Cowboys (Chas Henry)

Kick returner: David Wilson, Giants (Brandon Banks)

Punt returner: Brandon Banks, Redskins (Banks)

• Pierre-Paul is a slam-dunk at one of the defensive end spots. He's a nightmare for opposing defenses, and Tampa Bay was clearly focused on his side almost all game. He needs help from his teammates on the other side, who have yet to do anything. For the second week in a row, I went with a 3-4 end along with Pierre-Paul, which was a little bit tougher this week given the way Jason Babin and Trent Cole played Sunday. But I really think Hatcher is bringing something special to the Cowboys' defensive front and that he showed as much as anyone on the defense did this week coming off his huge Week 1. The guy who nearly bumped him out, actually, was another 3-4 end -- Washington's Stephen Bowen, which would have made nine Redskins! Bowen is worthy of consideration. I think Hatcher's played a tick better.
• And truth be told, it could have been 10 Redskins, as I very nearly gave the second outside linebacker spot to Brian Orakpo over Ware, who was invisible this week. But this is an all-year team, and sadly, Orakpo won't be making it this year, as this turns out to have been his last chance. He's out for the year with a chest muscle injury.
• Cornerback is a place where Cowboys fans will complain, and I hear you. Brandon Carr and Morris Claiborne have played very well. But I think Wilson and Rodgers-Cromartie, when you go back and watch the tape, are playing at a remarkably high level right now. In last year's cornerback competition on this weekly exercise, Dallas' guys would have been winning easily. This year the competition is tougher.
• Switched up the safeties. Nate Allen of the Eagles came close to snagging Sensabaugh's spot, especially with Sensabaugh having got hurt. Phillips is the division's best safety and one of the best in the league.
• I didn't think I'd put Mathis back in at left guard because of the penalties, and Nate Livings is the No. 2 guy on my list here. But what Mathis does in the run game is just ridiculous, and it keeps him at the very top.
• Almost kept Bennett in at tight end because of the job he's doing as a blocker, but Celek is the third-leading receiver in the division right now, behind the Giants' studs.
• Trent Williams is making it easy at his spot, as he's always had the ability to do. He's fun to watch.

Okay, that's it from me. Your thoughts?

19 Sep, 2012

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Source: http://espn.go.com/blog/nfceast/post/_/id/43342/all-nfc-east-team-week-2-update
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07.04 | 0 komentar | Read More

Breakfast links: Eagles' D doing the job

Ah, Wednesday. Let's get these links out of the way so we can get to work on that All-NFC East team!

Philadelphia Eagles

Through two games, the Eagles' defense is doing the job. It's a unit that's clearly more confident in itself than it was a year ago. And whether that's because of DeMeco Ryans or the super-fast rookies or Todd Bowles or Juan Castillo being in his second year as coordinator or all of that put together, you can't argue with the results to this point.

Part of the Eagles' plan Sunday was not to be bullied by the Ravens' defense, which they believe had a plan to try to bully them. DeSean Jackson came dangerously close to being thrown out of the game, at one point throwing a punch at a Ravens defender, but he had a message afterwards for Ray Lewis.

Dallas Cowboys

Tim MacMahon writes that a 1-1 record after two games is no surprise, because the Cowboys have established themselves over the past decade-plus as one of the NFL's most average teams.

As for this week and trying to beat the Buccaneers, they're in trouble at safety. It doesn't look as though Gerald Sensabaugh will play, it looks as though Barry Church will have to play hurt, and Matt Johnson's not ready to play yet. A lot falls once again on those good cover corners they have to lock down Vincent Jackson and Mike Williams, though the Bucs prefer to try to run the ball.

Washington Redskins

Mike Shanahan blames execution and focus -- not strategy -- for the Redskins having had two punts blocked so far this year. He believes the problem can be solved. I'd have to think so. It'd be a pretty big story if the Redskins had 16 punts blocked this year.

Cornerback Josh Wilson is playing very well, making him a standout in an otherwise poor performance by the Washington secondary Sunday. Rich Campbell's defensive game review discusses that and much more.

New York Giants

Cornerback Prince Amukamara says he's optimistic he'll play Thursday night against the Panthers. And while they won't rush him back, the Giants do need him. I know, Amukamara hasn't proven anything at the NFL level yet. But he's more talented and fundamentally sound than the guys they're using opposite Corey Webster right now, and they're getting lit up back there. Even just another body, proven or unproven, would be welcome.

Justin Tuck asserts that he would have refused to do what the Tampa Bay Buccaneers' defensive players did on the final play of Sunday's game, even if ordered by his coach to do so.

19 Sep, 2012

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Source: http://espn.go.com/blog/nfceast/post/_/id/43338/breakfast-links-eagles-d-doing-the-job
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05.04 | 0 komentar | Read More

Bradshaw a question mark for Thursday

Wondering whether New York Giants running back Ahmad Bradshaw will play Thursday night against the Carolina Panthers? Yeah, well, I can't help you much there. Giants coach Tom Coughlin was deliberately vague on Bradshaw after Tuesday's practice (in which Bradshaw did not participate), saying only the word "neck" with regard to the running back's injury and "we are" when asked if he was holding out hope that Bradshaw might play. That said, though, if you'll allow me a bit of speculation, I would be surprised to see Bradshaw on Thursday night. With only three days off between games this week, and with Bradshaw unable to participate in the one real practice, it's hard to imagine he'll have time to recover. That could mean more of Andre Brown, who as Coughlin points out performed well in relief of Bradshaw on Sunday:

"I thought Andre did a nice job," Coughlin said. "He certainly was the focal point once Ahmad came out of the game. David (Wilson) has his plays and certainly will get some more time as well."

Not a lot there for you fantasy football players, though if you have a piece of the Giants' running game on your fantasy team you haven't been paying very close attention over the past couple of seasons. The Giants need to find something in the run game. Carolina's defense offers an opportunity to do that. If Bradshaw can't answer the bell and Brown and/or Wilson were to perform well, that might portend a change in the way the run game operates going forward.

Affecting this situation as well is the status of right tackle David Diehl, who left Sunday's game with a knee injury and also did not practice Tuesday. Diehl's "unlikely" to play, according to Ohm, which likely would mean Will Beatty gets the start at either right or left tackle (with Sean Locklear at the other). Wide receiver Domenik Hixon missed practice while recovering from his concussion, and wide receiver Hakeem Nicks sat out to rest his foot injury, but that was a planned rest day and Nicks is expected to play.

Short week might be biting the Giants this time around, as it's possible any of the injured guys might be ready to play come Sunday. But the upside is that they'll have nine full days to recover between their Week 3 and Week 4 games.

19 Sep, 2012

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Source: http://espn.go.com/blog/nfceast/post/_/id/43331/bradshaw-a-question-mark-for-thursday
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15.13 | 0 komentar | Read More

Giants correctly blame league for ref mess

It took a while, but it seems people are finally starting to figure out what's at the root of the NFL officiating fiasco -- and who's to blame. Several New York Giants players spoke out Tuesday, and they pointed the finger squarely where it belongs -- at commissioner Roger Goodell and the league's owners, who have locked out the real officials and don't appear to care how bad the replacements are. Per the New York Daily News:

"I am not necessarily mad at the replacement officials," said Giants defensive end Justin Tuck. "I am more upset with the NFL for not handling this and taking care of this in due time."

"There's no doubt the integrity of the game has been compromised not having the regular officials out there," added Giants linebacker Mathias Kiwanuka. "We've got to get that taken care of."

Good for these guys. I'm so sick of people saying and writing things like, "It doesn't matter whose fault this is, it just has to be resolved." Anybody's who's said or written that is an enabler, plain and simple, making it easier for the league and the owners to get away with their new favorite labor-dispute technique, the lockout. This is 100 percent the NFL's fault. Just as the players weren't last summer, the officials aren't on strike. They are locked out. The league will not budge until it gets everything it wants, and in the meantime the product is suffering. Everyone agrees that the product is suffering -- coaches, players, fans, analysts. Everyone but the league, whose official statements continue to portray everything as fine and the replacement officials as improving in spite of the overwhelming evidence to the contrary. The problem is, from the league's standpoint, everything is fine. If quality of the product were the concern, the league would already have moved to settle with the officials and done so in time for the start of the regular season. But quality of the product is not the league's concern. Size of audience is the league's only concern. And as long as ratings keep skyrocketing and people keep turning out for the games, frothing at the mouth in anticipation of them and climbing all over each other to break them all down, the NFL has no incentive to change anything it's doing. Long games? Bungled spots? Officials unafraid to proclaim themselves fans of one of the teams? Who cares? You're all still watching. You're all still willingly forking over your money. Why should the league move to do anything at all?

"I think all the success that this league is having, you don't want this to be a damper," Tuck said. "I think the replacement referee situation can start to put a damper on the league in some way. You don't want that to happen."

Problem is, unless this becomes a damper, nothing will get done. Unless this really begins to have a deleterious effect on the league's lifeblood -- TV ratings and the advertising dollars that go with them -- the owners will have no incentive to get it resolved. They'll just wait for the officials to cave in and give them what they want, and they'll march smugly into the future, assured that they were completely justified in locking out their employees and refusing to negotiate seriously.

It was so refreshing to hear Steve Young on "Monday Night Football" go off on his "They don't care" rant about the league, because I really don't think people understand what this is about. The NFL could afford to pay its officials any amount of money it wanted to. It could afford to fund pensions for the officials and their kids and their dogs and cats and fish. The NFL has more money than any of us will ever be able to conceive, and if it cared to put the best possible product on its fields and your TV screens, it would simply have solved this by now. But it does not. The league and the owners care more about getting it the way they want it -- the best possible deal that lines their pockets to the maximum extent possible. And they don't care whether you like the way they do it or not. They know, no matter how upset you may get about it, that you're not going anywhere. And until they're scared you are, they're not going to change the way they behave. Not one tiny little bit.

You want this officials' dispute resolved? It's pretty simple. Stop putting up with it. Stay home this week. Keep your TV turned off. Hit them in the wallets, because that's the only place these guys feel anything. If you're not prepared to do that, then no amount of hand wringing is going to help. It doesn't matter to the NFL that the replacement officials have made the game harder to watch. It will only matter if people actually stop watching.

19 Sep, 2012

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Source: http://espn.go.com/blog/nfceast/post/_/id/43323/giants-correctly-blame-league-for-ref-mess
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NFL: Week 2 knee-jerk reactions

AFC EAST by James Walker Running back C.J. Spiller is the real deal. He's leading the NFL in rushing. You can mark him down for the Pro Bowl right now. Spiller is a stud and it's been that way since the end of last season. He just needed playing time. The injury to Fred Jackson will actually help Buffalo in the short term, because Spiller is in his prime and ready to light it up. When Jackson comes back, he should be Spiller's backup for the rest of the season. Our guy, Reggie Bush, is even better. He's an every-down running back now. Book him for the Pro Bowl, too. Bush is probably the most improved player I've seen from one year ago to now. He's silenced his critics and deserves the title of an every-down back. But durability has always been a question with Bush. Can he take big hits for 16 games? That remains to be seen. This offense is done without tight end Aaron Hernandez. The Patriots were lost without him against the Cardinals. If he's out until at least October, don't expect the Patriots to score a lot of points until then. This is an overreaction if I ever saw one. The Patriots had trouble adjusting Sunday because they had to change their gameplan on the fly. New England is more prepared this week to play without Hernandez now, and the addition of former Pro Bowl tight end Kellen Winslow Jr. also will help. Get quarterback Mark Sanchez outta here! He could barely complete a pass for three quarters. It's Tim Tebow Time! He's a winner. Slow down, Tebow-ites. Sanchez only had one bad game against a very tough defense. It's expected. Besides, Sanchez needs to string together at least two or three bad games in a row before we even start thinking about Tebow. AFC WEST by Bill Williamson Peyton Manning has lost it. He threw three interceptions in the first quarter at Atlanta and he will never be back to the form he enjoyed before his neck surgery that cost him the 2011 season. Manning will be fine. Yes, the three interceptions cost the Broncos the game. But he settled down and showed he has ability. The truth is, he is still shaking off the rust and he is still getting into a rhythm with his new offense. It will take time. The Chiefs are out of the race. They are 0-2 and look awful. It's not reality yet. This team started 0-3 last year and nearly won the division. The Chiefs still have time, but the defense needs to tighten up. Offensive coordinator Greg Knapp's West Coast offense doesn't fit the team. The offense has regressed under Knapp. The Raiders shined in recent years in a more power run game. But give Knapp's attack some time before we declare it a failure in Oakland. The Chargers are for real. San Diego looks great. They are 2-0 under Norv Turner for the first time. For the time being, it is reality. The Chargers have passed every test so far. Yes, it's early, but there isn't much to complain about. AFC NORTH by Jamison Hensley The replacement officials cost the Ravens the game in Philadelphia. A questionable offensive pass interference penalty negated a Jacoby Jones touchdown, which would have put Baltimore ahead, 27-17, with 5:29 remaining. Not. This isn't defending the replacement officials, who really embarrassed themselves in how they lost control of the game. The Ravens just can't point fingers at the referees after Joe Flacco completed eight passes in the second half and the defense allowed 486 yards. The Bengals have the worst defense in the league. They have given up over 400 yards in each of their first two games and rank 30th in the NFL in defense. It's a reality for right now, but this defense won't rank among the worst by the end of the season. Injuries have hurt the Bengals, who will be stronger when defensive end Carlos Dunlap and first-round cornerback Dre Kirkpatrick return. Quarterback Brandon Weeden has turned the corner. He set a team rookie record with 322 yards passing against Cincinnati on Sunday. Not. Just as fans wanted Weeden benched after that horrible season-opening performance, you can't say he's on the right track after one standout effort. Weeden is going to be a work-in-progress for the entire season. He did show once again he deserves to be the starter over Colt McCoy. The Steelers won't be able to run the ball all season. Pittsburgh has gained 141 yards on the ground in two games. Only the Raiders and Titans have less. Reality. The Steelers were only a middle of the pack running team last season when Rashard Mendenhall was healthy. The Steelers' backups, Isaac Redman and Jonathan Dwyer, have been underwhelming. A positive is new offensive coordinator Todd Haley isn't quick to abandon the running game like his predecessor Bruce Arians. AFC SOUTH by Paul Kuharsky Should I stay at the Marriott on Canal or the W hotel near the casino for Super Bowl Week in New Orleans? There is no way the Texans aren't going. I mean Houston's better than New England for sure. Two games have been very good, but Houston should beat up Miami and Jacksonville. Sunday's the Texans' first real test. Let's see how they do in hostile Denver against their old nemesis, Peyton Manning. Hey, look at how they reacted to adversity and responded. This team has some spunk and spark. Look how bad the Jaguars and Titans were? The Colts can get second place in the division and make a playoff bid. Easy there. It was a good win during which they showed some good qualities. The Colts are better than a team like Minnesota. They've shown they aren't one of the very bottom teams in the league. That team Sunday that was blown out by Houston looked an awful like last year's disaster. Jacksonville's doomed again. The Jaguars are pretty banged up and weren't likely to compete with Houston. If they can't measure up next week in Indy, then we'll start the doom and gloom talk. The Titans may be the worst team in the league. If they get the No. 1 pick in the draft, how much of a haul can they get by trading down to someone who wants a quarterback like Matt Barkley? It's too early to jump to that. They've been horrible, but we knew they were going to have a rough start with this schedule.

19 Sep, 2012

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Source: http://espn.go.com/blog/nfceast/post/_/id/43319/nfl-week-2-knee-jerk-reactions
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Power Rankings: What to make of Eagles?

Yes, the new Power Rankings are out. Here's at look at where our division's teams stand this week:

7. Philadelphia Eagles (Last week: 12). That's where I ranked them, though I have to say I struggled. Yes, they're 2-0, which can only be said of five other teams. Yes, that's all that matters, and yes, they've shown an impressive amount of grit and toughness to overcome nine turnovers and win their games each by one point. But on the flip side ... they've committed nine turnovers and only won each game by one point. I'm not the only one struggling to figure out where to rank them. Ashley Fox, clearly not a believer, has them 10th. Jamison Hensley has them fifth. And yes, I agree that it seems a bit incongruous that they're ranked behind the Ravens after beating them. But I doubt anyone who's watched the Eagles so far this year has a clear idea of what to make of them, and I think they remain a difficult team to trust.

8. New York Giants (7). Rare that a team drops a spot after winning, but it speaks to the jumble in the NFC East and the confusing way these teams have come out of the gate. The Giants have looked very bad in seven of their eight quarters so far, but their brilliant fourth quarter against the Buccaneers has them at 1-1 instead of 0-2. Ashley ranks them fifth, John Clayton has them 11th and I have them sixth, still one spot ahead of Philly because I'm determined not to underestimate them this year and I believe they have earned more benefit of the doubt than have the Eagles. I can't deny they've looked much shakier than this ranking indicates, and I have to believe the ranking is due more to what we saw from them last year than what they've shown so far in 2012.

15. Dallas Cowboys (10). As great as Week 1 was for Dallas, the Week 2 loss in Seattle was just as bad, and so they're right back in the range in which they began the season. Three of us have them ranked 13th, Ashley has them 15th and Mike Sando has them 16th. They actually tied for 14th with Arizona but lost out on a tiebreaker (overall record). My inclination is to keep them right here in the middle until they show some kind of sustained proof that they belong any higher.

20. Washington Redskins (15). A bad loss in St. Louis and bad injury news on the defense has pushed the Redskins back down the ladder. I seem to still be the only thing keeping them this high, as I put them 16th while Sando put them 22nd and Clayton and Jamison have them at 23. I still think they're better than people are inclined to assume they'll be, but they've been throwing dirt on their benefit of the doubt for years now. And if the defense is banged up, that's going to hurt them in the standings and the rankings going forward. I guess that, while I expect that to happen, I thought it was fair to wait and see first before dropping them back into the 20s.

Anyway, enjoy. I know you always do.

19 Sep, 2012

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Source: http://espn.go.com/blog/nfceast/post/_/id/43312/power-rankings-what-to-make-of-eagles
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Next men up on Eagles' offensive line

The Philadelphia Eagles announced Tuesday morning that starting center Jason Kelce would be placed on injured reserve and miss the remainder of the season due to the knee injury he suffered in Sunday's game. This is not a huge surprise, as it was raised as a possibility following Kelce's MRI on Monday. That leaves Dallas Reynolds as the Eagles' center starting with this Sunday's game in Arizona, and so this is a good time to look at Sheil Kapadia's offensive line review from Sunday's victory over Baltimore. On Reynolds in particular:

I didn't notice any missed blocks that resulted in a sack or a hit on Vick. On the 13-yard third-down completion to Damaris Johnson, he started out with Danny Watkins, double-teaming Haloti Ngata, recognized a delayed blitzer and switched to help Evan Mathis. Really nice job for someone seeing his first NFL action. In the third, Reynolds had some trouble with nose tackle Maake Kemoeatu, but overall, he might have been the Eagles' unsung hero Sunday.

The Eagles also could be making a change at left tackle, as Demetress Bell took over for an injured King Dunlap during Sunday's game as well. Here's Sheil on Bell, who was supposed to be the starter after Jason Peters got hurt but didn't perform well enough in training camp to hold off Dunlap:

The question is: Has something clicked with Bell and Howard Mudd's techniques? Or did he just block the way he used to with the vertical steps in Buffalo, trying to do whatever he could to keep Michael Vick clean? From my perspective, there was definitely a little bit of that, which seems fine, given the circumstances. Bell was not perfect, but he held up much better than expected.

That thing where something clicks with the lineman and Mudd's techniques is a real thing, and the Eagles have seen it happen with other players since Mudd arrived last year. I wouldn't be surprised if Bell became the starter going forward, and as I wrote yesterday, as much as I like Kelce, I wouldn't be surprised if Reynolds is a very adequate fill-in.

18 Sep, 2012

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Source: http://espn.go.com/blog/nfceast/post/_/id/43309/next-men-up-on-eagles-offensive-line
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Chatting the day away

Dan Graziano

Graziano joined ESPN.com in 2011 after two years as a Senior NFL Writer for AOL FanHouse. He covered Major League Baseball, the Olympics and various other sports during his time at the Star-Ledger and the Palm Beach Post. A New Jersey native and author of two published novels, he now lives in Ridgewood, N.J., with his wife and two sons.

Send questions and comments »

18 Sep, 2012

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Source: http://espn.go.com/blog/nfceast/post/_/id/43304/chatting-the-day-away
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Breakfast links: Too soon to cut Felix

Raining pretty hard out there. Morning commute could be rough. And Power Rankings are just hours away. You'd better have some links.

Philadelphia Eagles

The loss of center Jason Kelce is a tough one for the Eagles, Jeff McLane writes, because while they have a ready replacement in Dallas Reynolds, the issue becomes one of depth behind the starters on the offensive line.

Safety was the biggest question mark on the Eagles' defense going into training camp. But after two games, Nate Allen and Kurt Coleman appear to be filling their roles quite nicely along with the rest of the players on that side of the ball.

Dallas Cowboys

Felix Jones does not look like an NFL player right now, and there's much debate in the wake of his performance in Seattle on Sunday as to whether the Cowboys ought to just cut him. But Jean-Jacques Taylor thinks it would be foolish to drop a 25-year-old running back with Jones' physical skills just because he's not good enough to be the starter and he's had a couple of bad games to start the season. I'm with Jacques, but I do think they have to find out what the other backs on their roster look like as DeMarco Murray's backup.

Barry Church and Gerald Sensabaugh are both dealing with injuries, which could lead the Cowboys to seek safety help in the coming week or weeks.

Washington Redskins

While no one wants to throw cold water on a season two games in regardless of the level of bad injury news they've just received, Jason Reid says the Redskins just don't have backups capable of delivering what Brian Orakpo and Adam Carriker bring to the table.

No, of course Mike Shanahan is not going to cut Josh Morgan, one of two wide receivers he signed to long-term contracts in the first hour of free agency to build an offense around franchise quarterback Robert Griffin III. The more sensible move is of course to use Morgan's late-game gaffe as a learning tool that helps Morgan grow as a player.

New York Giants

It was something of a surprise that Andre Brown beat out D.J. Ware for one of the Giants' backup running back spots. Now, with starter Ahmad Bradshaw hurt, first-round pick David Wilson not yet ready and the Giants playing the day after tomorrow, Brown is excited for the chance to build on the positives he showed when he had to go into the game Sunday.

Corey Webster, who's had two rough games in pass coverage to start the season, thinks the Giants' defensive backs need to be more aggressive with receivers at the line of scrimmage. No word from the Giants' coaches on whether that's something they want their defensive backs to do at this point.

18 Sep, 2012

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Source: http://espn.go.com/blog/nfceast/post/_/id/43296/breakfast-links-37
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Why didn't the Cowboys blitz more?

Tim MacMahon is wondering, as many of you are, why Dallas Cowboys defensive coordinator Rob Ryan didn't call more blitzes in an attempt to rattle Seahawks rookie quarterback Russell Wilson in Sunday's game. It's a good question, and one for which Tim doesn't expect an answer until Friday, which is the day on which Ryan deigns to speak to the media and explain himself to the public. All we can know for sure in the meantime is that the defensive game plan Ryan drew up didn't work:

Ryan called only six blitzes on Wilson's 25 dropbacks. And this came after Wilson went 6-of-18 for 47 yards and was sacked three times against five-plus-man pressure in a Week 1 loss to the Cardinals, according to numbers crunched by ESPN Stats & Information.

It's not like Wilson burned the Cowboys when they blitzed. He was 3-of-5 for only 21 yards and was sacked once.

Wilson, who had plenty of time in the pocket against the Cowboys' three- and four-man rushes, completed 12 of 15 passes for 130 yards and a touchdown when Dallas didn't blitz. He also scrambled three times for 26 yards and was sacked once, in garbage time.

Ryan didn't blitz often last year, and we assumed that was because he didn't trust his cornerbacks to cover. This year's cornerbacks can cover, and cover quite well, so the assumption was that he'd blitz more. He blitzed Eli Manning more in the opener than he did last year, though still not a remarkable amount.

Now, the Cowboys did fall behind very quickly 10-0 on Sunday, and once that happened it was fair to assume the Seahawks would try to pummel them with the run game (which they did, to great success). And so it's possible that the plan was to blitz more but the plan had to be changed to account for the likelihood of more run plays. Regardless, as Tim points out, if DeMarcus Ware isn't going to be able to beat substandard tackles and generate pressure of his own, the Cowboys' pass rush isn't going to be very imposing whether they blitz or not. I'm interested to hear this explained as the week goes along, but in the end I think it gets back to the point I made earlier today. I think the Cowboys were manhandled on the road by a physically tougher team, and I think that got them out of many things they likely planned to do.

18 Sep, 2012

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Source: http://espn.go.com/blog/nfceast/post/_/id/43281/why-didnt-the-cowboys-blitz-more
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Redskins get double dose of bad news

Washington Redskins coach Mike Shanahan delivered some worst-case-scenario injury news in his media briefing Monday. Outside linebacker Brian Orakpo (torn pectoral muscle) and defensive end Adam Carriker (torn quad) will have surgery, and neither will play again this season. This is crushing news for the Redskins, for whom Orakpo and Carriker are critical pieces of a defensive front seven that was the strength of their team. My preseason prediction that the Redskins wold go 8-8 was based not on my high opinion of their exciting rookie quarterback but rather on my belief that the defensive line and linebacking corps would play much better than a lot of people likely imagined they would and that a strong, deep front seven would make the Redskins a very difficult opponent against which to play.

The depth will help in this situation, as Rob Jackson has shown something when called upon to play outside linebacker and guys like Chris Baker, Jarvis Jenkins, Stephen Bowen and Barry Cofield were already part of a deep defensive line rotation. But Orakpo is a special pass-rushing talent on a team that relies on its outside linebackers to pressure passers. With him out, Ryan Kerrigan will draw more double-teams on the opposite side as teams dare Jackson to beat them. And unless Jackson drastically outperforms expectations, that strategy is likely to work. At the very least, it will do something to neutralize Kerrigan, who has thrived as Orakpo's opposite number since the Redskins drafted him last year.

The Redskins also have major issues in the secondary, as Danny Amendola's performance against them showed in Sunday's loss to the Rams in St. Louis, but they went into the season believing they could cover those somewhat with the play of the front seven. With safety Tanard Jackson suspended and safety Brandon Meriweather hurt, they were already thinner on the back end than they wanted to be. Now, they'll be thinner at linebacker and on the line as well, and will have to play without two of their cornerstone players. As excited as everyone is about Robert Griffin III, I believe today's news should lead Redskins fans to temper their 2012 expectations at least a little bit.

18 Sep, 2012

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Source: http://espn.go.com/blog/nfceast/post/_/id/43286/redskins-get-double-dose-of-bad-news
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Kelce loss bad, not devastating for Eagles

Philadelphia Eagles center Jason Kelce has significant knee ligament damage, and while the team isn't ruling him out for the year, season-ending surgery remains a possibility. At the very least, they must be prepared to play without him for four to six weeks. For an offensive line that already lost its best player, left tackle Jason Peters, to an Achilles injury in the offseason, this is certainly not good news. But I don't think it's a season-crippling bit of news for the Eagles, and here's why:

Dallas Reynolds, who replaced Kelce on Sunday and is slated to replace him going forward, is not just some guy the Eagles plucked off the street when they got in a jam. He spent three years (which is the maximum allowable number of years) on the Eagles' practice squad before making this year's 53-man roster as Kelce's backup. He did not win that spot by default. There was competition. He had to beat out two other players for it. Reynolds was offensive line coach Howard Mudd's pick to fill this exact role, and the reason is that Mudd believed he was ready to fill in if Kelce got hurt.

This is no real stretch. Kelce was a rookie last year and had Mudd's scheme down cold almost from the beginning. It was something of a surprise in 2011 training camp when everyone realized Kelce might win the starting job ahead of Jamaal Jackson, but by midseason it made all the sense in the world. Reynolds could conceivably play well enough to make everyone forget they were ever worried about this. He worked to learn Mudd's schemes all of last year and in training camp this year. And if you ask an Eagles offensive lineman, he'll tell you that Mudd's blocking schemes can take a little time to learn but that once you've got them down, you've got them down. Kelce, Evan Mathis and Danny Watkins all stand as examples of guys who figured it out all of a sudden and never looked back. It's possible Demetress Bell, who went in at left tackle Sunday and played well after King Dunlap got hurt, could be the latest such example.

Point is, the Eagles have faith in Mudd and his ability to put together an effective run-blocking and pass-protecting offensive line. They do not fear a lack of depth, because they believe they created competition for their backup spots and that it made everyone better. Kelce is a very good player who will be missed, but I think it's more than a little bit possible that Reynolds will fill in just fine.

18 Sep, 2012

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Source: http://espn.go.com/blog/nfceast/post/_/id/43276/kelce-loss-bad-not-devastating-for-eagles
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Typical, incredible, invaluable Eli Manning

The Greg Schiano stuff is so silly -- much ado about a rookie coach trying to make everybody think he's tough by telling his defense to play hard in the final five seconds after letting receivers run by them without consequence for the prior 14:55. It's all over the place this morning and not likely going away anytime soon. But one of the things that's been somewhat obscured by the focus on the final play is an otherworldly fourth-quarter performance by New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning.

Has this become so routine now? Are we to the point where we just expect Manning to do something like complete 8-of-13 passes for 243 yards and two touchdowns in the fourth quarter? Manning had one of the 10 highest yardage passing games in the history of the league Sunday, finishing the game with 510 yards of which his team needed every single one to complete its comeback victory over Tampa Bay. But it was his fourth-quarter brilliance that once again brings into focus what Manning means to the Giants. Which is absolutely everything.

The Giants' defense is not yet where it needs to be. Corey Webster and the crew of backup cornerbacks with which he's playing are having a terrible time through two weeks. The fact that the pass rush has been somewhat absent so far isn't helping. You give the champs the benefit of the doubt and believe that these things will turn around, but through two weeks the Giants' defense has been downright porous, allowing an average of 29 points and 370 yards per game.

They also aren't going to win by running the ball. Sure, Andre Brown looked OK in relief of an injured Ahmad Bradshaw, and good for him for doing something with his opportunity. But 71 yards on 13 carries against a defense like Tampa Bay's isn't game plan-changing stuff. It's just good compared to what the Giants have done in the run game over the past year.

No, I really don't think it's a stretch to say that, if the Giants lost Manning for an extended period of time, they wouldn't win any games at all. He is so important to them, and they have come to rely so intensely on his ability to win games for them in the fourth quarter, that right now they appear completely lost without him. When Manning was struggling and throwing three interceptions in the first half, the Giants looked like one of the worst teams in the league. When he got it together in the fourth quarter, found his rhythm and started hitting Victor Cruz and Hakeem Nicks in stride, they looked like a Tecmo Bowl offense. These feel as though they could be exaggerations, but they're not. Until they get their defense on track, their running game figured out and their offensive line together, the Giants are 100 percent reliant on Manning to win them games with his receivers.

This makes Manning the most valuable player in the NFL right now, and he plays like it. Yes, he's the same guy who threw those three interceptions in the second quarter. Yes, he can be reckless and take chances because he's not scared to try the most difficult of throws due to his belief that he can make them. But the reason he's the heart and soul of the Giants is that his teammates and his coaches know that the second-quarter interceptions have no effect whatsoever on Manning come the fourth quarter. He is never bothered or flustered or affected by any mistake he makes or any failure that takes place around him. He does not believe there's a lead too big or an opponent too tough to overcome. He is always the same, at the line of scrimmage, on the sideline, in the huddle and in the meeting room, regardless of circumstances. He is a rock, and he is now delivering such consistent fourth-quarter excellence that we hardly even notice it anymore when it happens.

Can you imagine if Robert Griffin III had led his team to 25 fourth-quarter points and a comeback win with 243 fourth-quarter passing yards? All of sports would have been canceled this week while we debated whether to change the league's name to the "RG3FL." In Philadelphia, Michael Vick has done it twice in two weeks -- overcome his own shoddy early play to engineer game-winning fourth-quarter drives, and a fan base doesn't even know how to handle it. Do they fret about the turnovers? Are they able to just be happy with the wins? Can you do both?

In New York, the Giants and their fans are used to the feeling. They expect it. Manning has delivered it nine times over the past calendar year, including once in an NFC Championship Game and once in a Super Bowl. It's part of who the Giants are. Right now, as they work to get their 2012 legs under them, it's kind of all the Giants are. Manning has become the easy answer to the question, "Which quarterback would you want playing for you if you needed a game-winning drive?" It's now Eli Manning. Not his big brother, who looks good starting over with the Broncos. Not Tom Brady, whom he's beaten twice in the Super Bowl. It's Eli. And what he did Sunday proved it all over again.

18 Sep, 2012

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Source: http://espn.go.com/blog/nfceast/post/_/id/43267/typical-incredible-invaluable-eli-manning
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Redskins can't afford mistakes

The biggest mistake the Washington Redskins made Sunday, and the one that will get the most attention going forward, was Josh Morgan's late-game loss of temper that turned a borderline 47-yard game-tying field goal attempt into an impossible 62-yard one. Morgan was humiliated and contrite and likely knows he'll suffer the scorn of Redskins fans when he runs onto the field for the home opener Sunday. But while Morgan's mistake may ultimately have been the costliest, it was merely the last in a long line of Redskins mistakes that helped cost them a Week 2 game they should have won in St. Louis.

Robert Griffin III was breathtaking once again, but his second-quarter interception was a bad-decision, trying-to-do-too-much play -- the kind for which Michael Vick gets roundly ripped several times a week. It helped the Rams cut a 21-13 lead to 21-16 just before the end of the first half.

The Redskins were penalized 11 times for 96 yards in the game, which (doing some quick math here) means 10 penalties for 81 yards before Morgan lost it at the end. The majority of the penalties came after halftime, as the Redskins were blowing the lead and falling behind. Five of them were either false starts by the offense or offsides by the defense -- avoidable, unforced discipline penalties the likes of which make coaches crazy. Yeah, you're playing in a dome, but you need to stay on the right side of the line.

For the second time in as many games, the Redskins had a punt blocked. This one led to the touchdown that gave the Rams the 31-28 lead in the fourth quarter.

Little stuff, but lots of it, and the Redskins aren't the kind of team that can afford it. The Eagles make their mistakes, but they have this incredibly deep, tough, physical defense that never gets tired and can throttle the opposing offense and give Vick time to find his way back into the game. The Giants make their mistakes, but they have a two-time Super Bowl-MVP quarterback who can win games by himself in the fourth quarter like some kind of magician.

The Redskins? They have a good-looking defense that has some holes. Especially in the secondary, where Rams receiver Danny Amendola found every hole there was and some no one had even known about on his way to 15 catches for 160 yards. The Redskins have a rookie quarterback who looks like everything we've been told he'd be but is still learning on the job and will be better on the weeks when things go right. Down the road, will Griffin be the kind of quarterback who can rescue the Redskins from their mistakes? They believe so. But in Game 2 of his NFL career, it's too much to ask.

The Redskins should have played better, and they probably let some of the Rams' extracurricular aggressiveness get to them. And the losses to injury of Brian Orakpo and Adam Carriker surely affected things they were able to do on defense. But they only lost this NFL road game by three points, and you have to believe cutting out just a couple or three of those many mistakes could have swung it the other way for them.

17 Sep, 2012

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Source: http://espn.go.com/blog/nfceast/post/_/id/43259/redskins-cant-afford-mistakes
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08.14 | 0 komentar | Read More

Cowboys got pushed around in Seattle

Before Sunday's game in Seattle, I thought the matchups between the Dallas Cowboys' wide receivers and the Seattle Seahawks' cornerbacks could go either way. In Brandon Browner and Richard Sherman, the Seahawks have two of the biggest, tallest and most physical corners in the game. So it was certainly possible that they could out-muscle Cowboys receivers Miles Austin, Dez Bryant and Kevin Ogletree all day and make it tough for them to find easy freedom down the field. It was also possible, if they didn't do that, that the Cowboys' receivers could win with their speed, which appeared to be their advantage over that big Seattle secondary.

Unfortunately for the Cowboys, it went that first way. The Seattle defense beat up Austin and Bryant and Ogletree, and other than Austin's second-quarter touchdown catch, the passing game couldn't get anything going. I often say on here that Bryant is a physical mismatch for any defensive back who tries to cover him. In Seattle, he may have found the exceptions.

It was a similar story in the run game, where the offensive line was unable to open holes for DeMarco Murray. It was a similar story on the other side of the ball, where the Cowboys got very little pressure on rookie quarterback Russell Wilson and their defensive front got pushed around and beaten up physically in the run game by the Seattle offensive line in the second half.

These things happen, of course, and it's the NFL and it was a road game in a notoriously tough place to play. But all of the special teams mistakes and the defensive game-planning issues people are upset about this morning take a back seat, for me, to the fact that the Cowboys simply weren't physical enough to hang in the game with the Seahawks.

This is a potential problem for a team that is stronger on the lines than it was last year but still may not be as strong as it eventually wants to be. The offensive line issues are something we've been discussing here for weeks, and we know they're still working on building a line in front of Murray and Tony Romo. I expect it will be better next year than it is this year, but for now they're making do with substandard play, especially on the interior of the line. The defensive line is in a similar situation while they wait for Tyrone Crawford to bulk up and develop. Inside linebackers Sean Lee and Bruce Carter are excellent open-field playmakers, but they're not exactly thumpers who are going to help beef up the line when it needs muscle against a more physical offense.

The Cowboys looked fantastic in their Week 1 victory over the New York Giants, but the Giants are not a super-physical team. They too have issues on the offensive line, and their defensive line, while loaded with excellent playmakers, does have a tendency to get pushed around at times by more physical teams. The Giants are an excellent team, I believe, but you'd certainly classify them more as a finesse team than a physical one. The point being, if the Cowboys are the kind of team that will struggle with the physical aspect of the game, Week 1 may not have exposed that.

But Week 2 certainly did, and that has to be what stings the most. By no means do I think the Cowboys are doomed because they lost in Seattle, any more than I thought they were Super Bowl-bound after they beat the Giants. Long way to go, and lots could still change. But there are going to be games on the schedule that require Dallas to play much more physically tough up front than they did Sunday. And you wonder if they can.

17 Sep, 2012

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Source: http://espn.go.com/blog/nfceast/post/_/id/43253/cowboys-got-pushed-around-in-seattle
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Breakfast links: Vick, Eli lead comebacks

Good Monday morning to you. Little bit of a "market correction Sunday," unfortunately for the fans of two of our teams and fortunately for the fans of one. I think the Cowboys' and Redskins' losses were bad losses and the Giants' and Eagles' wins were tough, if ugly, wins. We knew the Giants were tough. We had plenty of reason, after last year, to think the Eagles weren't. They have shown in their first two games that, in spite of quite a number of other flaws, they're at least tougher this year than they were in 2011. And that's something on which they can build.

In case you're new, when we're in season we do the breakfast links in order of division standings. With a three-way tie for second, I'm using division record as the tiebreaker. The Redskins haven't played a division game. The Cowboys beat the Giants in the only division game so far this year. That explains the order. Now, links.

Philadelphia Eagles (2-0)

Bad things happen in life, some of them our fault and some out of our control. All any of us can do after the bad things happen is handle them the best we can. This is what Phil Sheridan believes Michael Vick has shown in his first two games, recovering from a mess of turnovers to lead a pair of game-winning drives. Vick is obviously not playing well, but he's 2-0. And I have to believe Eagles fans would rather that be the case than the opposite.

The Eagles' defense has been absolutely stellar in both games. A lot has to do with the veteran leadership (and excellent play) of new middle linebacker DeMeco Ryans. But they've also been getting big-time contributions from rookies Mychal Kendricks and Brandon Boykin, as Geoff Mosher writes.

Dallas Cowboys (1-1)

If you brought home a report card like the one Tim MacMahon handed the Cowboys after Sunday's loss in Seattle, your folks wouldn't let you out of the house for a month. The D-minus for the passing offense qualifies as the lone "bright spot." I do find it interesting that they didn't blitz the rookie quarterback Russell Wilson after blitzing Eli Manning more last week than they did last year. In general, it seems the Cowboys prefer not to blitz, but I thought the point was that this year they'd do it more because of all that improved coverage in the secondary.

The Golden Tate hit on Sean Lee was out of line, and the Cowboys expect that Tate will be fined for it. Good for Lee for playing it down. Guy's a professional. Also, he's a linebacker who got walloped by a wide receiver. Can't imagine he was too fired up to discuss that, whether it was legal or not.

Washington Redskins

The Redskins' defensive front seven is a critical element to their team, and likely its biggest strength. As Jason Reid writes, key injuries to Brian Orakpo and Adam Carriker altered a lot about the way the Redskins were able to attack the Rams' offense Sunday. We await word on the severity of the injuries, but extended missed time for either or both would be difficult for the Redskins to overcome. Mike Jones writes that it doesn't sound good for either guy.

If the front seven isn't dominant, the secondary is exposed, and my goodness did the Rams' Danny Amendola expose it.

New York Giants

What we wrote about Vick up in the Eagles links is certainly something that applies to Eli Manning's Sunday as well. Manning had a rough start but ended up with (gulp) 510 passing yards and three touchdowns. All summer, the Giants said they didn't want to ask Manning to have to come back and win games with his arm over and over again this year. But they sure do love knowing that he can.

The Giants' offensive line had to shuffle some things when right tackle David Diehl went out with a knee injury. Will Beatty was happy for the chance to get some snaps, though not happy about the reason he got them. We await word on the severity of the Diehl injury and the way the Giants plan to use their tackles in the coming weeks. Remember, they have the Thursday night game this week.

17 Sep, 2012

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Source: http://espn.go.com/blog/nfceast/post/_/id/43248/breakfast-links-36
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05.15 | 0 komentar | Read More

Greg Schiano is just way out of line

I'm all for new faces shaking things up. I like it when people question conventional NFL wisdom. I don't think enough people do it, and as a result I think things have a tendency to get a little redundant with this league from time to time. So if a new hotshot coach wants to come in from the college ranks and shake things up with a new defense or some funky new plays or even a new attitude, I'm generally all for it. That is not, however, what Tampa Bay Buccaneers coach Greg Schiano is up to with this thing where he had his players jump over the line and after New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning while Manning was taking a knee at the end of Sunday's game. The Giants were justifiably upset about the maneuver, and Schiano's excuse was weak and stupid. Per ESPNNewYork.com:

"I don't know if that's not something that's not done in the National Football League, but what I do with our football team is we fight until they tell us game over," Schiano said. "There's nothing dirty about it and there's nothing illegal about it.

"We crowd the ball -- it's like a sneak defense and you try to knock it loose. Watch Rutgers, they would know if they watched us that's what we did at the end of the game."

Rutgers is, of course, where Schiano was coaching this time last year. And there are a few real problems with his rationale. First of all, you don't see teams doing that stuff at the college level, and it's for the same reason you don't see it at the NFL level. It's because it's a real good way to get people hurt for no good reason. If you're losing and out of timeouts and the other team has the ball with so little time left that they can kneel down and run out the clock, you've lost. It doesn't prove anything to your players or anyone else if you're the fake tough guy who refuses to accept that. All it does is put people at silly risk of injury at the end of 60 minutes' worth of brutal, health-threatening collisions. You owe it to your own players to know when you're beaten and back off. Asking them to make a useless leaping hit in that situation is putting them at risk the same way it's putting the other team at risk. It's irresponsible.

It also shows a lack of respect. It's sore-losership. You've been beaten, fair and square, in the part of the game in which both teams were competing honestly. To try and win it cheaply with a sneaky play after the opposing team (and any other opposing team you've ever faced or ever will face) justifiably believes it to have been decided is dishonest and dishonorable. Schiano's team played extremely hard on the road against the Super Bowl champs, but by the time Manning was taking a knee, they'd lost. The game was over. Schiano's postgame assertion that he didn't know that was naive, bush-league and almost certainly a lie.

I personally think the Giants complain too much, and I very often don't like the way they carry themselves as though they're doing everything right and other teams are somehow beneath their standards. I think they're very often haughty and arrogant, and when they're acting that way I am never shy about calling them on it.

In this case, though, they're right and Greg Schiano is wrong. There are better ways of making a name for yourself as an NFL head coach than a fake-tough-guy act in your second game. He should be proud of the way his team has played its first two games for him. He should be ashamed of the way he coached Sunday's final seconds.

17 Sep, 2012

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Source: http://espn.go.com/blog/nfceast/post/_/id/43240/greg-schiano-is-just-way-out-of-line
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18.03 | 0 komentar | Read More

Wrap-up: Rams 31, Redskins 28

A few thoughts on the Washington Redskins' disappointing Week 2, 31-28, loss to the Rams in St. Louis:

What it means: Well, Robert Griffin III isn't going to go undefeated for the season or his career. I know some wondered about this after last week's victory in New Orleans, but we kept saying there would be bumps in the road, and this was a bump. St. Louis may be better this year than it was last year, but it's still the kind of team you need to beat if you want to be a surprise contender in the NFC this year. Griffin made some breathtaking plays, and the 82 rushing yards on top of 206 passing yards must have made a lot of fantasy football players happy. But he also had some plays on which he looked like a rookie. All totally understandable, and pretty much what to expect as the year goes along. A lot of excitement and some areas that need work. It also bears mentioning that his best wide receiver, Pierre Garcon, missed the game with a foot injury.

Goat of the week: Wide receiver Josh Morgan, are you kidding me? The Redskins got a late turnover and were moving the ball, looking as though they might at least get a shot at a field goal to send the game into overtime. Morgan caught a pass at the Rams' 29-yard line, which would have set up Billy Cundiff for a 47-yard try. No gimme, but certainly within Cundiff's range. However, Morgan got mad and flipped the ball at a Rams defender and was (correctly) flagged for unsportsmanlike conduct. The result was a 15-yard penalty, and Cundiff's game-tying try from 62 yards fell well short, as you would expect. There were other things that cost the Redskins this game, but Morgan ended any chance at a miracle, final-seconds comeback. Terribly stupid play.

He's the man: Rookie Alfred Morris was once again the only Redskins running back of note, collecting 89 rushing yards on 16 carries. Griffin carried the ball 11 times, but no other Redskin got more than one carry. Roy Helu got none, and was only targeted once in the passing game. Morris is the Redskins' running back right now. Not sure how long it'll last, but he's not doing anything to prod a change.

Pressure up front: I expected the Redskins to get some pressure from the defensive line as well as the outside linebackers, and it appears from what I was able to see that Stephen Bowen had a big game. The box score credits him with a sack, a tackle-for-loss, a pass defended and two quarterback hits. Active.

Be careful: I loved watching Griffin run the ball on those designed runs and broken plays, of which there were several in a row on one early fourth-quarter possession. But man, he's taking some shots. Breathtaking runner, and you don't want to take that out of his game, but they need to find ways to protect him from the hits. They have to be cringing every time he takes one, considering what's invested in him.

Young at heart: I see you, London Fletcher.

What's next: Griffin will make his home debut Sunday at 1 p.m. ET against the Cincinnati Bengals. The Bengals are 1-1 after beating the Browns at home Sunday afternoon.

17 Sep, 2012

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Source: http://espn.go.com/blog/nfceast/post/_/id/43231/wrap-up-rams-31-redskins-28
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17.22 | 0 komentar | Read More

Eagles showing a whole new toughness

PHILADELPHIA -- Despite everything, the Philadelphia Eagles had the lead. Despite four more turnovers, six more penalties and a slew of significant injuries to offensive starters, the players in the Eagles' defensive huddle were looking up at a scoreboard that showed them leading the Baltimore Ravens 24-23 with 1:55 to go and the ball on the Baltimore 20-yard line, and they were fired up.

"This is the play!" middle linebacker DeMeco Ryans shouted at his teammates, before each of the eight plays the Ravens would run on that final series. "This is the play we make to close the game!"

And the Eagles bought it. And make those plays they did. Rookie cornerback Brandon Boykin went high in the air to break up a Joe Flacco pass. Safety Nate Allen busted up a couple. Nnamdi Asomugha got one, too, though he got called for illegal contact on his and handed the Ravens five yards with 1:21 to play. Just one more obstacle, though, and Ryans kept barking, kept urging. The defensive line swarmed Flacco, who threw incomplete on third-and-one, incomplete on fourth-and-one, and Ryans' prophecy came true. The defense held.

The Eagles held on for a 24-23 victory over the Ravens. Despite it all, and for the second week in a row, the Eagles had come back in the fourth quarter to win a game by one point. And if you watched the Eagles play the fourth quarter last year, there's no other way to put it: This is new.

"I think the belief is what's new," Asomugha said. "I think we would say the same thing in the huddle last year, but we'd be wondering what play we were going to run and not really be believing it. So I think that belief is there now that, when it comes down to the end of the game, we can finish it off."

The turnover problems, the penalty problems and the general sloppiness are not new. Those were here last year, and they're still here. Whether the Eagles can correct those things will go a long way toward determining what kind of season they have. But there has been enough talk so far about what's the same about this year's Eagles. Sunday's game, in the end, and same as last week, was about what's different. Last year's Eagles didn't come back to win games in the fourth quarter. Last year's Eagles didn't stop teams on that final drive. Last year's Eagles were giving away September games they should have won. This year's Eagles are winning September games they should have lost.

"We've been put in that same position two weeks in a row, and we love it," safety Kurt Coleman said. "It builds character. We're glad we've come away with two wins, but what's just as important is the way games like that, and proving to yourself every week that you can win them, really help build the character of your football team."

This was one of the big questions about the 2012 Eagles. Last year's flop gave everyone reason to doubt whether this group had it where it counts -- whether it had the guts, the heart, the whatever-you-want-to-call-it that teams need to win games in the fourth quarter. Adding Ryans at middle linebacker, picking rookies like Boykin, Fletcher Cox and Mychal Kendricks to infuse the defense with energy, intensity and depth -- these are moves that have so far paid off. The Eagles have needed their defense to stiffen up when the offense was struggling and repeatedly handing the ball to the other team in each of their first two games. Twice now, that defense has responded. The Eagles gave up just 146 yards in the second half of the game while Michael Vick and his crew erased a 17-7 deficit. They watched starting center Jason Kelce, wide receiver Jeremy Maclin and left tackle King Dunlap get carted away to the locker room. They watched Vick somehow figure out an 80-yard touchdown drive in the final five minutes, nearly turning it over again but holding just tough enough to get it done.

"It was obviously like, 'Here we go again,'" said Vick, who's thrown a stunning six interceptions in his first two games but also completed 23-of-32 passes for 371 yards in Sunday's contest. "But you just look at your teammates, your coaches, the people who depend on you, and you just want to get it done. It's just another opportunity to be 2-0, and that's all it boils down to."

For the most part, that's true. It's not as if the Eagles don't still have issues. They won't be able to average 4.5 turnovers per game and expect to win every week. Kelce's injury appears serious enough to end his season, and that's going to matter. Maclin looks like a guy who's going to be playing hurt, at best, for some time. Many of the play-calling and discipline issues that have been driving Eagles fans for years remain in evidence, and as the weeks go along they will want to see them taken care of.

"Look, there's nothing I can tell you," Eagles coach Andy Reid said. "I don't like turnovers. I don't want turnovers. The players don't want turnovers, so we have to get better at it. You have to hang onto the football when you're given a chance to handle the football, and you have to make sure you throw it to the right person. This isn't something we planned on having."

But despite it all, the Eagles are 2-0. And just as they all believed in each other to come back and beat the Ravens this week, they believe they can fix their problems over the long haul. And amid all of this, they've already shown more toughness and heart and grit in two games than they showed last year in 16. And that's got a chance to serve them extremely well when and if they ever get the sloppy stuff fixed.

17 Sep, 2012

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Source: http://espn.go.com/blog/nfceast/post/_/id/43201/eagles-showing-a-whole-new-toughness
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16.43 | 0 komentar | Read More