DCOrange

It really wasn’t ticky tack though. Juju would have been wide open if Bradberry didn’t grab him. He had completely faked Bradberry out. And everyone keeps saying they were letting all the defensive holding go but I have yet to see an instance of it. They definitely missed an even more blatant pass interference earlier in the game but nobody was really pointing out missed holding calls the rest of the way. Bradberry just got fooled again at the worst time and did what he had to to prevent a touchdown and the refs rightly called him for it.

I don’t think anyone is perfectly fine with having missed calls, but I think it’s pretty fair and logical to say that the goal should be to limit missed calls as much as possible. Not calling holding against Philly at the end because you missed another holding against Philly earlier would be pretty stupid IMO.

There isn't much point in having a short yardage back anymore. Handing the ball off is far less effective than just pushing the QB forwards.

Literally everyone is good at it lol. Any time the play is stopped it’s a fluke or defying the laws of physics.

The problem is that it’s almost literally impossible to stop unless the QB fumbles the snap or slips and falls. 4th and 1s or 3rd and shorts used to be stressful situations where either team could come out on top. Now success is essentially just determined by which coach is smart enough to run a QB sneak instead of trying to get cute.

They were converted nearly 85% of the time this year and that’s including traditional QB sneaks like where the QB wasn’t being pushed from behind. I’d be shocked if it were less than 90% on the push plays.

I guess maybe I’m just naively optimistic that they’re seeing how many former players, coaches, media people, etc. think it needs to be changed.

This is obviously a massive exaggeration but I’m sure you realize that too. It was objectively a penalty that some are arguing the refs just shouldn’t call in that situation vs plays like the Saints-Rams pass interference where literally everyone can agree it was a blatant penalty. I would argue every game in every sport likely has multiple calls worse than the one from last night.

I think the league has realized it was a mistake to change it but we’ll see. There’s already so many people calling for it in the media and among former players. The push plays ruined what used to be a tense situation. 4th and 1 and even 2 are now just gimme plays because it’s physically impossible for 1 or 2 defensive linemen to stand up against 7+ players pushing directly on them. It’s just stupid.

I suspect it will be outlawed this off-season anyways (not qb sneaks in general but specifically the ones where everyone just pushes him from behind).

I’m honestly asking here…I’m guessing the answer is yes but I didn’t see it myself. Were there a lot of defensive holding penalties going uncalled in this game? I think the one that was called at the end was pretty blatant personally and likely saved a TD so I personally think it had to be called, but I’m open to the idea that there were other blatant ones that were not. Ultimately I thought this was maybe the best officiated game of the playoffs which isn’t saying a lot but kinda is. The playing surface and QB sneak abuse were the two most annoying parts of the game to me.

This is how the Eagles defense looked pretty much every time they faced a good QB this year.

Feels like he’s more likely to return to Europe than the NBA but you never really know. Either way it doesn’t sound like he’ll be back. I think expectations for next season should be pretty low but it seems like we’re finally starting to recruit again thanks to Weitsman.

A double negative makes Zay Flowers a positive

It makes sense in terms of addressing needs, but as I mentioned before, it would be incredibly frustrating considering we’ve addressed this exact need several times now while forgoing many other needs.

I’d rather have neither of these scenarios but alas this is what we ended up with.

I’m not really banging the table to fire either coordinator and definitely not McDermott, but I wouldn’t complain if the coordinators were gone. Think there’s a lot worse coordinators out there though and that our issues are more talent related than coaching related.

Spend more than a 1st round pick for the right to pay him $25 mil per year and his track record as a coach is making it to 1 Super Bowl in 15 years with his team going all in more often than not. I’d probably rather have McDermott even if we didn’t have to give up the farm for Payton, but considering the cost to get him, it’s a no brainer to pass.

I don’t think there’s really any reason to think they would have made the difference and I don’t we’re in a position where we can afford to find out.

A hell no to Payton and probably no to the idea of firing McDermott in general.

Our RBs ran for over 1400 yards this year. How much do you think we’d realistically get with a better RB?

We have no idea what version of Von we’re getting next season and Rousseau hasn’t shown much reason to believe he can be our best pass rusher either. Don’t get me wrong, I want us to prioritize WR and OLine, but DL is still very much a serious need IMO.

I say it half jokingly, but seriously, how many needs do we have that you’d rank ahead of the DL? There’s a few for sure but DL remains a major need for us unfortunately. We just can’t get it right.

On top of the actual players he selects, I fundamentally disagree with his draft philosophies too. I’m not totally out on him but I think he might be a bigger issue than our coordinators are.

I don’t want to but it remains probably our #2 or #3 biggest need. It’s just sad.