Igglesfan

Hello from Philadelphia. Looking forward to the match-up Saturday, should be a hell of a game if both teams show up ready to play (I don't really buy into the whole Brees can't play out of the dome thing).

Had a few questions for you guys about some of the key match-ups of the game.

1) How has your front 7 been playing this year? A lot of the Eagle's success this year has come from our OL play (Peters selected to the probowl and Mathis/Kelce probably should have been as well, often making blocks 5-10 yards down the field). However when that protection has fallen apart we get exposed. Foles usually elects to throw the ball away if he feels pressure, and McCoy's much less effective if teams contain him inside.

2) Has any team really been effective in slowing Jimmy Graham down this year? And if so how did they do it? Eagles defense has been a work in progress. Our pass rush has been solid recently, which has prevented teams from going deep and exposing our awful safety situation. However the quick release passes have killed us, and I can see Graham/Brees taking full advantage of that. LB Kendricks and slot CB Boykin have been rising stars for us, but still Graham is in a league of his own.

I'd love to answer questions from any of you as well. Just trying to get some perspective from the other side. Cheers.

TheOak

1. Our defensive front 7 are solid... Look up sack stats and you will find Jordan and Gallette are ranked 5th and 6th in the league.
2013 NFL Player Defense Stats - National Football League - ESPN


2. The Patriots did it with Talib... Do you have one? Jimmy had some lessor producing games this season other than that but a lot of the reason was Drew having an off day, Graham dropping passes, or him getting double or triple teamed. When the DT or TT happened Colston had some great games.

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dizzle88

Welcome to B & G

In terms of our front 7, our pass rush has been incredible compared to other seasons, we have nearly doubled last year sacks

Cameron Jordan is still very underrated, plays the run great and has notched 12.5 sacks on top of that aswell, only in his 3rd season aswell

Junior Galette our pass rushing OLB is relentless, teams make a big mistake constantly putting a TE in to block him, his spin move makes you think of a young dwight freeney

Our run defense isnt amazing but its not a massive liability, however arent the eagles number 1 in rushing offense?

We lost a bit of versatility in losing kenny vaccaro, but we have alot of depth in our secondary. Keenan lewis is a stud, eagles offense has alot of weapons though just like ours

Should be a very good game

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Igglesfan

Ha no we do not have a Talib. Our CBs have been...hit-or-miss. They have done a very solid job on some premiere WRs (see Dez, Fitzgerald, the Bears duo), then other times they get picked on. TEs on the other hand have shown they can beat us (Witten carved us up last game) with Kendricks, Boykin, and even Barwin/Cole mixing up coverages.

Talib is a pretty physical CB so maybe the key is getting in his face at the line to throw him off. Cary Williams has actually been pretty solid at that, but still to play up that close requires a lot of confidence in the safeties to back you up and Chung/Allen are possibly the worst safety duo in the league. Should be interesting

Igglesfan

Yep the Eagles are #1 in rushing I believe. McCoy has been a stud, but most of it has come down to our OL. Keep a close eye on our center and LG during run plays. They are almost always leading McCoy through holes opening up all kinds of space for him. James Casey, our TE has also been an excellent blocker this year as well even though he doesn't get much credit.

Damn well I knew Ryan had helped turn around the defense, but I didn't know the DL was doing that well. That very well could be the match-up of the game. Stop McCoy enough and we'll look to Foles. As I said Foles is cautious with the ball, he'll take a sack/throw it away if you get in his face rather than try to force something (hence the 27:2 TD:INT ratio)

jeanpierre

Mathis should have absolutely been in the ProBowl; he IS your best overall offensive lineman; very few can move downhill like he does for Shady...

Though he had an auspicious start to the season, ya'll finally found a complimentary receiver in Reilly opposite DJacks...

I like our chances against your pass rush; it's like ours has been until this year; feast against the poorer teams on OL, famine against the good OL teams; media will try to put alot of pressure on rookie Armstead to rattle him - good, I think it'll toughen him up and make him better...

Ya'll are going to try to expose our safeties with DJacks and the Tight Ends; our job will be to get to Foles quickly and not allow that to develop...

John Jenkins is another rookie we're expecting (pardon pun) big things from in the middle...

It's not that my way is the right way, I just make the right way my way...

cmsaint

Our first 7 has been frankly, stellar. Our pass D is a liability espacially deep. Count on D jackson taking one to the house if foles has time.

As far as graham goes, he is a monster. NE was the only team to really take him out of the game. I dont see the eagles having that capability. If drew can get some protection I think he can expose the eagles secondary.

First one to 30 wins IMO.

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|Mitch|

You say that, but we had the 2nd best pass defense in the regular season...

cmsaint

With Greer and Vaccaro out id say its a liability against and explosive deep threat like d jackson. I guess I shouldve clarified....in this matchup I think its a liability.

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xan

Welcome.

1) The problem with the Saints' defense on the road is that the Drew Brees has thrown a bunch of interceptions inside the Saints' 30, giving very short fields for the opposing team. This happens most often at the beginning of the game, when putting the team at the peak of disadvantage can be achieved. More often than not, it is not a result of pressure, just profoundly bad decisionmaking.

As long as your front 7 are alert, Brees is good for 1-2 gimme's a game. Better not to pressure him, because that's when teams get torched.

2) As big and as strong as Graham is, he doesn't like to be touched, hence his disappearance vs. physical defenders. He can't seem to get separation, or maybe the schemes don't factor the physicality into the route running. Whatever, just bump him, or any Saints' receiver for that matter, and you disrupt Brees' timing to them.

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