ImfromClayton

I don't think the play calling is the issue. I don't think scheme is the issue. I'm not even sure what the proper term is, but I think our entire philosophy and approach to offensive football is what's killing us. We try to slow down the game so much, and limit possessions. I'm just not sure we have the personnel to do that. A few Facts: 1. Bryce is better when we are trailing late. 2. Bryce has a miraculous number of game winning drives. 3. Chuba has been much less effective this season. 4. Our record is almost entirely dependent on the coin toss. 5. Some games Bryce looks like Tom Brady throwing the deep ball, sometimes he looks like Oprah Winfrey throwing a deep ball. All these can be explained pretty simply with our offensive philosophy. Dave wants to slow the game down as much as humanly possible. This may be his philosophy as a coach, it may be due to his beliefs about the team, but it's clear that is his desire. It's a smart way to play football. The Eagles have won a lot of games doing this. I just don't think this team wins that way. Bryce seems to look like a world beater after we are trailing, or after he throws his novelty INT in the first half, but I think that's because once we abandon the philosophy of slowing the game down, Bryce is more comfortable. I don't know how many of you played sports, but baseball, football, whatever, you have to stay loose and stay warm. When we throw it short 15 times and then throw one deep ball, it's hard to be accurate. When we throw it 40 times with 7 deep balls, those 7 are very likely much more accurate than the one. It's not surprise that we have so many game winning drives, because we have so many opportunities for game winning drives. The shorter the game, in theory, the closer the game will be. In a game when both teams get 6 possessions, it's pretty reasonable to assume that it will be a close game. It's also reasonable to assume that we will have the ball with a chance to win in the 4th quarter. Chuba also seems to do well when we are spreading it out, and throwing it everywhere. Honestly, most running backs do. I don't think he's built to line up with 10 in the box and run it 35 times a game. Rico is much more that back. Chuba played at OK State in a spread system, and seems to have more success when we are doing that late in games, like Bryce. My last point is that our record is almost totally dependent on the coin toss. To win with limited possessions, you almost always have to win the "middle 8" of the game. When you lose the opening coin toss, it's harder to do that. We don't seem to be efficient enough on offense to overcome receiving the ball in the first half. I think the playcalling is fine. I think the scheme is fine. It's the philosophy that doesn't seem to be working, and why I do still think Bryce could have a lot of success somewhere else. If were going to play this way, we need an athletic quarterback, or an extremely accurate one, but playing this style of football is always going to hurt a QB's accuracy.

This post is not defending Bryce young, but I do want to be as fair as possible. Bryce's rookie year: Throw it out. Period. That was the most dysfunctional situation I've ever seen in the NFL. Not just for the rookie QB, but for everyone involved. Fairly certain we had coaches on staff that weren't speaking to one another by the end of that season. The hatred was real. That said, he (Bryce) still hasn't been good enough. I would love to see these numbers without that season. If anybody has a link for that, I'd appreciate it. Play calling. Canales has to make a decision about who we want to be. We jerk so much between trying to be a slow, methodical, efficient offense, and then going no huddle and throwing it all over the yard. I think part of the reason Bryce has the comebacks is because of course he's more consistent when we are throwing it all over the yard. I think he's better when we are throwing it all over the yard. But that doesn't seem to be what Canales wants to do. This hybrid may be a coaches dream, and guys like Brady may have been able to do it, but Bryce simply can't. Edit: This hybrid/indecision in the playcalling and scheme is literally the reason Bryce has so many game winning drives. We try to play slow, and methodical, and take the air out of the ball every single game, every single possession, until the time and score dictate that we can't. Sometimes it works, and we dominate. In most games, we get about 6 possessions, and so does the other team, and it comes down to who plays better in the 4th quarter. When it doesn't work at all, we are trailing late, and have to go all gas no breaks. When we slow the game down, it's more than likely going to be a one score affair. This is also part of why our record correlates so closely with whether or not we win the opening coin toss. It's almost impossible to win the way we are playing if you don't win the "middle eight." I'm just not sure Bryce is the guy for the system Canales appears to want to run. I'm honestly not sure Chuba is the back for it either.

The strength of the offense has been shortening games with the run game, and then being more efficient with our possessions than our opponents. I'm fine if we want to play like that, and I understand that it's going to limit the quarterback's numbers if we do. The Eagles have won a lot of games like that the last several years. That said, we can't do that and have turnovers. Whatever it takes to solve that problem, we need to get it done. I thought Bryce could have walked into the end zone on the first pick. I thought the officials missed a terrible DPI and/or DH on the second one. We also had some fumble issues last night. All that said, I feel like we have an excuse for this offense every time they don't succeed. And I'm just as guilty. But if we have to make an excuse for 15 different interceptions, at some point, were just being dumb and the excuses get tired. At some point, we have carved out an identity. We just have to be that identity. If we can't do that, we either have to change the personnel, or approach the game differently.

I don't think Canales is on the hot seat at all. We've seen substantial improvement in his time here. That said, the issues on offense are either Bryce or Canales, or both, and at some point, Tepp is going to have to pick a scape goat.

I just don't know what to think at this point. One would think with the money spent on O-line and RB, and the draft capital spent at WR and TE there's no excuse. I've been thinking we were one good defense heavy draft away from being competitive, but I'm definitely in the realm of reevaluating. I hate to restart the clock on this group, because I think the core group is good, but man, at some point Bryce has to either get more consistent or we gotta sit him.

This feels like the biggest game in a very long time. The way I see it, we probably need to win 4 of our last 6 to be in, and 3 of those absolutely must be the saints, and the bucs twice. Need one of these three NFC west games for sure, but winning two or three sure wouldn't hurt.

I think a lot of fans severely underestimate how difficult the mental side of an NFL playbook is, especially on offense, and especially for QB's and WR's. Clearly, T-Mac could handle it, but the dumbest thing you can possibly do is wreck the head of your rd 1 draft pick in his rookie year. Here's hoping we can keep taking advantage of this. Edit: And Tight end. Goodness gracious. There's a reason so many tight ends flame out. You have to have a complex understanding of the run game, the pass game, and any packages requiring multiple TE's to play that spot.

This argument takes nuance, but I see both sides of it. Bryce's good games, he's one of the best in the league, without a question. Lately, his really good games have been few and far between, though we are riding on a career best day last week. His bad games are not NFL quality. Hard to argue that as well. He reminds me of Cam Newton in one way. They are both such statistical anomalies that evaluating them can be extremely difficult. QB roulette is absolutely no path to success. Furthermore, we have literally watched our franchise recently let 3 QBs go that left and proved they could still do it at a high level. I definitely give Bryce this season, and probably next season. If Bryce can be the good version of Bryce more consistently it's crazy to let him walk. With the inconsistencies too, I think we could probably get a team friendly deal. If he can't bring next year's roster to the playoffs, he's not the guy, period. I do think Bryce is always going to be a guy that requires a quality offensive line due to his physical limitations. I think we can do it, but it's a factor to consider. You have to account for that money, and Damien Lewis, Robert Hunt and Taylor Moton are all between 28-31. If he's our guy for the next 10 years, it does appear he's going to have a top quality #1 receiver to get the ball to.

I just don’t understand this. We have classic, good looking uniforms.

One thing about RB's and LB's is they are going to get hurt. It's inevitable. Having a fresh Chuba is not a bad thing. My only criticism of this entire situation is that I wish our staff would adjust personnel to matchup a little better. I think Chuba is a lot better than Rico against the stacked boxes we've seen the last two weeks. They are very different backs with very different strengths, and I love them both. Rico is so good at identifying the hole early, and hitting it full speed early. He's much better at breaking the big run. Chuba is a much more patient back, and finds 3 yards when there's nothing there better than Rico. It's in no way a criticism of either, but I think Chuba would have had more success than Rico the way the Saints and Falcons attacked us from a Defensive standpoint. When you put 9 in the box, often times there is no hole to attack.

I thought our receivers were exceptionally poor against the saints, so I was very pleased on Sunday. I think they all got picked apart in the film room this past week. XL alligator armed a touchdown pass with no hit coming, T-Mac had some uncharacteristic drops and Coker had his worst game as a pro IMO. This team feels like effort level and preparation are still a moving target. That's the difference in good and great, because I saw a team that was well prepared and max effort against the falcons this week.

I appreciate you putting the work into this. It's one I struggle with. I do think we have some games where, if he plays better, were not in a position to need a game winning drive. I also think he's had some games, like Sunday against the dirty birds, for which without the dude, we lose the game. period. Part of the reason he has so many of these is due to the opportunities. His rookie year we sucked out loud. We could only really win by scoring before the buzzer. Last year was more of the same. That defensive unit last year with no DB was abysmal. Now that we finally aren't one of the worst defenses in football, we are seeing a lot better results. I do think Bryce was more consistent at the end of last season opposed to this season. The next step that we'd all like to see though is when we play a bad team like the saints, and they put 9 guys in the box, Bryce has to make them pay. And then we don't win on a game winning drive, we win by 14, because it's the NFL and you should get punished for putting 9 in the box. I still think he's only the guy that can lead us to success for this window of players. I'd like to see us get better at all three levels on defense in the offseason. We lose very little to free agency. Next year is the year.

I'm walking away from yesterday extremely pleased with the result, but also quite confused. That was obviously Bryce's best game with us, and I'm not sure its even remotely close. Additionally, he was CLEARLY hobbled by an injury. I thought the Falcons attacked us with pretty much the exact same defensive game plan the saints used. I did think the effort level and intensity our receivers showed was much better this week. I actually thought the o line was about the same as the saints game. I think Chandler Zavala is a talented kid, but he consistently misses assignments and makes mental mistakes. Defensively, our lack of talent is really starting to show up. We need help on that side of the ball badly in the offseason. I don't think Canales is a bad coach, I think he's learning and improving as we go. and In game coaching is absolutely a learned skill. That said, I do think he called a much better game Sunday opposed to last week. I do think Chuba is a better runner against the stacked boxes we've seen the last two weeks. Rico hits the hole so hard, and that's why he has a lot of the success he has, but sometimes, there's no hole, and a more patient runner like Chuba is the more ideal back, especially when teams have 8 and 9 guys in the box. I also think it's ok to have two good running backs with different skillsets as long as you don't allocate too much of the cap to them. At some point, we have to figure out the inconsistencies in the offense and how to address them. It is unconscionable that we looked like that against the saints and falcons in back to back weeks. There is no way to rationalize it. It's so hard to make a determination on Bryce young.

I agree with this. I think Jaycee is really good when he's good. but he's also really bad when he's bad. DB is one of the best players in the league and were lucky to have him. Scourton has been a phenomenal 2nd round rookie. I don't like spending money at safety, but Moehrig has been really good too. I'd spend nearly the entire draft on that side of the ball. We could use a really good player at every level on D. If the BPA when we pick is a DT, I hope that's the position we take. I'd even take a lower value position, like MLB. We just have to improve.

We just beat the team with the best record in the NFC 8 days ago. I don't see any W's or L's at this point. I see a bunch of "idk." As mentioned in the post, We can lose to anybody. I'll go through it though. @Atlanta. Who knows. I thought they were going to be really good. They've been really average. We killed them. I expect them to be better at home. But were definitely good enough to beat them. @49ers. Fully expect to lose. They have too many weapons on offense. But they also can't stop a nosebleed. Their QB's stink too. So Who knows? Home vs. Rams Fully expect to lose. But until yesterday, we've been pretty solid at home. I think Stafford has a field day against our defense. Poona Ford seems like exactly the type of player that prevents us from being able to run the football. This is the least likely W in my opinion. @Saints. I mean I think we are better than them but they just poo pumped us. So who knows. Home vs Bucs. I think they are better than us, but we were playing well at home. Who knows if you get good baker or bad baker. They have some injuries. idk Home vs. Seahawks. I think they are really good. Sam Darnold could turn back into a pumpkin, but I expect to lose this game. @ Bucs I think they are better than us, but same as above.