Eagles Blog

Yahoo! put together a fascinating infographic on NFL cheerleaders.

You must go check this out.

Did you know Phyllis from The Office was once a Cardinals cheerleader?

Did you know the Ravens have male cheerleaders?

All kinds of crazy nuggets.

Eagles fans are dealing with the ups and downs of young QBs like Nick Foles and Matt Barkley. We’d give anything for an RG3 type of franchise QB. But even those guys can struggle as they learn. Here is an excellent piece from Andy Benoit at theMMQB.com.

After diagnosing the defensive scheme, a great quarterback knows almost immediately what his best options are. Instead of waiting to see if Option A, B or C eventually gets open, he treats those reads as quick confirmations (maybe a defender has slipped?) before targeting Options D and E. This is how QBs like Tom Brady, Peyton Manning and Drew Brees are able to work deep into their progressions, and why they’re so tough to stop.

An unrefined quarterback sits in the pocket and waits … and waits … and waits … for Option A to get open. Or, when he finally moves on to Option B, he starts the mental process all over again. He treats Options A, B and C as separate entities, not realizing that the specific way in which Option A is covered often reveals everything he needs to know about B and C. By waiting too long on Option A, the window for hitting B or C—exploited spaces that are often built into the play design—can open and close without the quarterback ever seeing it.

Halfway through his second season, Griffin is unmistakably an unrefined quarterback. He is unable to consistently anticipate whether receivers are going to be open or covered. He tends to fixate on his initial read, which leads to trouble.

RG3 is a great talent, but needs work and experience before he can become a great QB.

One of the things Football Outsiders keeps track of is great offensive and defensive performances. Does the Eagles offense from Sunday stand out?

In this week’s Quick Reads, you saw that Nick Foles didn’t make our list of the best quarterback games ever despite throwing seven touchdown passes. The main reason was quantity, not quality; because our list was based on DYAR, it gives more value to games where players have more passes or runs.

Team DVOA, of course is a different story. It’s a per-play statistic, not a total value stat, and by measuring team DVOA we can also incorporate a strong running day where Eagles backs had 98 yards on 19 carries. Put it all together, and the Eagles end up with the fifth-highest single-game offensive DVOA in DVOA history.

Like, wow. 5th all time? I sure didn’t expect that. Go look at the list to see some of the other great offensive performances of all time.

Lol “@ESPNNFL: Eagles QB Nick Foles had more TD passes in three quarters Sunday than Vikings quarterbacks have passed for all season.”

— John Middlekauff (@JohnMiddlekauff) November 6, 2013

Yikes.

For my PE.com column, I took a look at how Nick Foles great game on Sunday stacked up with performances by other young Eagles QBs over the last 20 years.

Needless to say, Foles blew away the competition (Hoying, Feeley, and Kolb).

Foles is simply on a whole other level. The other three quarterbacks combined for eight touchdown passes. Foles didn’t even get a whole game and still had seven touchdowns. That is just mind-blowing.

What a game.

Top 2013 red zone QB passer ratings: 1. Peyton Manning 128.0, 2. Nick Foles 119.2, 3. Aaron Rodgers 115.5.

— Reuben Frank (@RoobCSN) November 5, 2013

This is one thing that has stood out to me. The Eagles are substantially better in the Red Zone with Foles at QB. That can play a huge part in winning games.

Riley Cooper is having the best season of his career. And this comes on the heels of the lowpoint, his incident at the Kenny Chesney concert. Tim McManus wrote about Riley and some of his teammates. One player who was outspoken againt Cooper was Cary Williams. Has that changed?

Williams, like many of his teammates, expressed conflicting emotions after a video of Cooper using a racial slur surfaced in late July. Right before the start of the season, he and Cooper had a heated exchange on the practice field.

Have they been able to come to a good spot personally? As teammates?

“We’re teammates. No question,” said Williams. “But I mean…We’re teammates, and we have a great working relationship.”

The body language further suggested that Williams and Cooper weren’t going out for ice cream after the game. Nor do they need to. Personal feelings aside, the team has picked up and moved on from an issue that had the ability to be pretty poisonous.

You have to give Williams and some other players a ton of credit for not making this situation one that took over the locker room. They will never look at Riley Cooper the same way, but they’ve got a functional football relationship. For now. that’s good enough.

Nick Foles has the same amount of TD passes (13) as Cam Newton, Andrew Luck and Tom Brady. Nick doesn't have half as many attempts as them.

— Tommy Lawlor (@lawlornfl) November 4, 2013

If he had enough attempts, Nick Foles would lead the NFL in QB rating at 127.4. Peyton Manning is all the way down at 119.4. Pitiful, right?

— Tommy Lawlor (@lawlornfl) November 4, 2013

Not too shabby.

By AC Viking

Foles is in rare company with 7 TDs.

How ’bout the 6 guys he tied . . . how did they do the week before, then the week after?

1. Joe Kapp, Minn.

Did Not Play the week before — like Foles.
The week after setting the record: 7-24, 100, 0-0.

2. George Blanda, Houston.

9-25, 134 yds, 1 Td, 2 Int (week before)
The week after: 15-28, 209, 1-3.

3. Adrian Burk, Phila.

13-28, 238 yds, 2 Tds, 5 Int 
The week after: 18-34, 206, 1-2.

4. YA Tittle, NYG.

9-16, 130 yds, 0 Tds, 1 Int
The week after: 8-31, 172, 3-0.

5. Sid Luckman, CHI.

10-21, 211 yds, 2 Tds, 1 Int.
The week after: 9-24, 145, 1-4.

6. Peyton Manning, DEN.

Opening day, so no game the week before.
The week after: 30-43, 307, 2-0.
________________

The NFL is so incredibly different compared to when all but Manning set the record. No 5-yard chuck rule. Safeties killing WR over the middle. Running as the preferred method of moving the ball.

Now . . . not so much.

I’d like to think Foles’ next numbers will be more in line with Peyton Mannings’ than Joe Kapp’s.

Don't be STUPID….. RT @howardeskin: Sports Sunday @FOX29philly coming up at 12:25a. Vick or Foles ?

— Marcus Vick (@MVFive) October 14, 2013

Beautiful.