What We Learned In Week 15

16 for 33, 182 yards, 1 TD and 1 INT. That's supposed to make me excited about Nick Foles?

Last week, I described the conditions under which we should evaluate (and remain skeptical of) Foles' chance to be the franchise quarterback. Chief among them was, "Can he keep up his run of success through the end of the season?" Foles had performed well in two games against poor coverage teams. When he finally got up against a solid defense against Cincinnati, he faltered. One of his biggest problems is inaccuracy on deep balls. Maybe we were spoiled by Michael Vick, but if Foles can't lead DeSean or Maclin deep, that puts a serious dent in any campaign to make him the permanent starter.

Other quick hits:

• Just a comedy of offensive errors against the Bengals. I know that at this point the Eagles are basically fielding a preseason squad, but five turnovers is still crazy high. I almost can't believe the Eagles were leading going into halftime.
• Brandon Graham! I wondered whether Graham's sky-high production would continue when he got more time in the starting lineup. So far, so good. His development this season has been one of the few bright spots. Sheil Kapadia compared Graham's year with Jason Pierre-Paul's on Saturday.
• Speaking of Kapadia and the defensive line, he also had a great All-22 look at the defensive line. Still some Wide Nine mixed in, but the Eagles used much more varied blitz looks and a variety of stunts to get players coming free at Andy Dalton.
• The Eagles sack leaders: Graham, Fletcher Cox, and Jason Babin are tied at 5.5. Who would have thought?
• I'm not sure what to make of Mychal Kendricks' move from strongside to weakside linebacker. On one hand, that's the position he was expected to play coming out of college, where his speed and athleticism could be used to blitz and make plays. But Kendricks, despite learning on the job, has done admirably against tight ends. His physical gifts allow him to match up with some of the best in the game (and there are more and more of those). One issue may have been his lack of production in the run game. It's more difficult to stop the run when you have to go through the strongside -- and Kendricks was toward the bottom in the league in both tackle and stop rate.
• Bryce Brown also seems to have come back down to Earth a little bit. Still, we've seen some serious potential. If he can make a reliability-based leap in his second season, there's plenty to like.

Photo from Getty.

Rewind: Notes on the Eagles-Jets Game

I rewatched the Eagles-Jets game last night and came away with several short nuggets for your enjoyment. Here you go:

• The Trent Cole and Jason Babin delayed blitz routine is fun to watch. Jimmy at Blogging the Beast has a nice breakdown of it. Though they’ve run this for a few weeks, it was especially effective against the Jets. I expect that the Cowboys tackles will be more prepared to pass their rushers off to the inside, which is when the Eagles should go double A-gap blitz instead.

• On the other side of the blitzing coin, there’s no need to pull zone blitzes that drop Cole into coverage. It’s just counter-productive. Mark Sanchez completed his long pass to tight end Dustin Keller against Cole. Of course, it helped that he could use a pump fake to move Kurt Coleman out of position.

• Casey Matthews definitely has potential as a nickel linebacker. He’s at least playing at game speed now and recognizing backs out of the backfield quickly, which is a massive improvement from before. He wasn’t a horrible pick in the fourth round, but I have no idea what Juan Castillo and company were thinking starting him, especially as a rookie.

• Meanwhile, Brian Rolle seems to be hitting a bit of a rookie wall. Where Matthews was flying around the field, Rolle looked slower than usual.

• Asante Samuel shifted over into the slot on the right side once or twice when he didn’t have a receiver to match up with on his side. That said, he was immediately called for pass interference on a slant route.

• Pro Football Focus charted the Eagles defense with 9 blitzes out of 31 plays. In general, blitzing (even sending 6+) is very positive for this team, since most of the coverage problems originate with linebacker or safety play.

• I loved the little play action screen pass in the third quarter, when the Eagles brought Brent Celek across the formation as if he was going to trap block, then he let the defensive end go, turned, and was open for the quick pass. Almost converted for the first down.

• The Jamar Chaney interception was all Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie. DRC jumped the slant route and knocked the ball into the air. It really shouldn’t be as hard for him to adjust to the slot as he makes it out to be, but he’s clearly more comfortable on the outside.

• LeSean McCoy’s 33 yard TD run was a classic example of his skills. He dodged the first free rusher and then bounced to the opposite side of the field, dancing around another defender. Then he turned on the burners. Touchdown.

Photo from Getty.

By the Numbers: Record-Breaking Victory

You may be surprised to hear this, but the Eagles are two more solid defensive efforts away from retaining Juan Castillo. One can see how the notion is going to start gaining momentum.

Since the Eagles left Seattle in disgrace, their defense has played two straight good games, albeit not against world-beaters. Over the final two weeks, they play two teams that they held to a combined 20 points the first time around.

Now you’ve got a “strong end to the season ” storyline that lends to the idea that Castillo just needed time to work things out, especially with the lockout. Avoiding collapse means the players will rally to this storyline, and writers will throw around the fact that Sean McDermott got a second chance.

Inside Novacare, Andy Reid’s already on a make-or-break 2012 season, so he might as well go out with his guys. Joe Banner and Howie Roseman will let Reid dig his own grave… and, voila. Juan, season two is born.

(Just to head everyone off at the pass, this is an awful idea.)

83% = Catch rate by Brent Celek. Celek’s 156-yard performance was impressive, even if he couldn’t quite punch his 73-yard catch-and-run into the end zone. In fact, it was the most receiving yards for a tight end in Eagles history since “Pistol Pete” Retzlaff in 1965. But even more important was the indication that Celek is really back, after dropping passes at a high rate in 2010.

0 = Eagles turnover margin, including the muffed punt. It’s amazing how many times these two teams tried to give the game away. The Eagles converted more of them to points, though.

20% = Jets red zone touchdown rate. Winning is easier when you don’t allow a touchdown every time the opponent gets inside the 20.

20 = Total all-purpose touchdowns for LeSean McCoy. What a ridiculously fine season for Shady. No one expected this type of historic performance.

3 = More sacks by Jason Babin. Some writers keeping trying to discredit Babin by linking him to the poor run defense. But that’s neither fair, nor particularly relevant. Even if he was a big problem against the run (which he’s not), 18 sacks evens that out a little bit.

Photo from Getty.

Angry Birds?

Mark Sanchez screams like a girl.

Week Fifteen
New York Jets @ Philadelphia Eagles
4:15 pm EST on FOX

Rex Ryan, Poet

Rex Ryan on Michael Vick:

“He can throw a battleship through a strawberry.”

The Daily News staff buried the lead on that one.

Update: Other outlets, including the New York Post, have the quote as “He can throw a strawberry through a battleship.” Which does, I suppose, make slightly more sense.