Official Game Day Thread @ Eagles

[Elephant]

It is not the amount of runs vs. the amount of passes that is in question. I keep seeing people talk about the number of runs vs. the number of passes and that is NOT the argument being made.

The argument being made is the critical moments at which pass plays and runs plays are being called.

Yes, execution plays a part in it, yes a play action on 1st down in certain situations late in the game can crush a defense. But for ****'s sake, it's about the fact that Kyle has been calling home run plays at critical moments in games when all we need to do is chew up some clock and finish a drive with at least some points.

Example: While I think we all expected a loss in Denver, that's a huge hole to climb out of, we had them exactly where we needed them...a 14 point lead in the 2nd half. We kept Payton off the field the majority of the 1st half. As soon as Payton got his first TD in the 2nd half (which is to be expected), Kyle tried to hit a home run with a QB who has been battling consistency with the long ball. We go 3 and out. Payton ties the game. Kyle runs it a couple times, we pick up a first down...then the second series of downs it was 3 passes in a row. Umm...you just ran 2 times and a short 3rd down completion, why go for the bomb there. Our defense needed a rest and that series was 6 and out. It was all down hil from there since Payton scored another TD to go up 7 and we played from behind the rest of the game...looking at blitz package after blitz package because the play action was no longer effective.

This is not an outlier either...this is Kyle. And teams know it.

 

[Bulldog]

From what I have seen Kyle is not the guy to work with Griffin and help him become an all-around passer.

Part of it at least from the outside appears to be a lack of trust between the qb and the coordinator and head coach.

Mike had put himself in a corner because elsewhere your head coach might be able to be someone Griffin could go to.

But with Mike having hired his son that's obviously not going to happen.

 

[Boone]

there was a shot of Griffin talking to Kyle on the sidelines. He had a very discouraged look on his face and he kept shaking his head.

To someone as polite and respectful as Robert is, that says a lot. He is over this. I think we are all over the "cuteness" of Kyle's play calling.

I think that's just your interpretation Mike. What I saw was frustration. He might have been as frustrated with over-throwing wide open receivers multiple times, receivers with nothing but green grass in front of them, rather than being angry at his offensive coordinator. It's possible there is tension, but that's not uncommon between QBs and O Coordinators even on winning teams. Your interpretation may be correct, but I also think you may be projecting your own feelings.

 

[Boone]

Why do we not want to hold players, who really are the only ones with any true ability to impact a game or a seasons outcome accountable? I'm not directing that at you Mike, just a general question.

I'll never understand why we have to vilify the coaching staff when things go south? We talk constantly about wanting the team to really be a team, that they all either succeed together or they fail together. But when failure happens we seem to have this desperate need to blame... And it's almost always the coaches we crush. I'd have less of a problem with that, except we don't just call them inept or unqualified, we question their desire, their integrity, their motivations...everything.

 

[servumtuum]

We lack confidence on both sides of the ball, when you add in the other deficiencies of this team to that.......you get 3-7

This relates to something I posted in chat; "This team demoralizes WAY too quickly"

I'm getting the impression that the offensive unit doesn't have confidence in the defensive unit's ability to keep the other team from scoring-especially when it's the second half and we're sitting on a lead and the opposing team has made some adjustments allow them greater success against the defense and it looks like they're staging a comeback-the offense suddenly looks rattled and panicky, almost like they're thinking-"Oh, God the D is collapsing we gotta make a score NOW". Trying too hard makes you over-think, takes you out of a rhythm that may have been working almost automatically and causes you to make mistakes of both judgement and technique. This snowballs as the situation worsens, the team looks uncertain and tentative-flailing about trying to recapture the "smoothness" they had lost. I think this affects Kyle's play calling to an extent also.

Now, before anyone accuses me of defending Kyle too much, I too have a problem with his play-calling and it's similar to Mike's overall view of his "system". Both have a tendency, IMO, to over rely-or, perhaps have too much confidence-in how well their system can work. Kyle seems to have a set of "patterns" of plays-groups of play sequences that in his mind have worked in the past and that will work in a plug-and-play sense-meaning he is not situationally flexible enough to adjust to the fact that tactically, game situations mandate adjustments in play calling that might be outside the normal pattern. Basically, he has trouble thinking outside his own "box."

Mike Shanahan has the same impediment, IMO. I think this problem may be even greater. Here's why. Another impression I'm getting is-and this is scary-is that the team , partly due to the changes necessary due to Griff's injury recovery state and the lack of success so far this season, are losing confidence in the system's ability to make up for player deficiencies and supply them with a level of consistency and, by extension, Mike himself.

Bottom line-this team is playing scared-even when they're leading.

Obviously this is all very subjective opinion on my part but these are some of the impressions I'm forming based on what I'm seeing.