I thought I'd split this off from the mega thread, because that's kind of the smack talking section arguing with Philly fans and Diqlix's mults.
But all of you Spags haters really should ante up here with YOUR scheme and game plan for the Super Bowl.
Personally, I'd like to see a Hurts spy on every play, but not the SAME spy every play. A mix of Gay, Sneed from the slot, maybe Cook or Reid from a SS type spot. I want a different lurking spy at all times.
If I'm blitzing, I'm coming A and B gaps. Our DE's have got to be mindful of containment.
Probably not a game where you're going to see a lot of sacks from outside unless we get out to a big lead early. Their defense is really good, so I'm not expecting that.
Other than a spy, Just keep showing one thing pre-snap and doing another post. I think you can confuse Hurts. But if he's unsure, he's going to take off, and you'll want that spy to neutralize. [Reply]
I think the concept is focus on stopping the run, yes stay in the 4-3 unless its an obvious passing down.
Chris mentioned this earlier but this is the game to breakout LEO! Gay, Bolton and Leo especially should be able to shut down the run. With Brandon Williams in the middle. I see lots of TFLs.
In the secondary we show zone but drop into man after the snap sending a blitzer. Sneed on AJ and trusting our DBs to make a play if Hurts is able to get one off.
This is the first half Defense, allowing us to build a lead and stress their offense. Needing to score to keep up we force Hurts to have to beat us with his arm in the second half. Now Spags switches to zone and we Blitz the crap out of Hurts! [Reply]
Chris Jones is going to have to go super human. That Oline is good. I dont like Clark on Mialahta or whatever. Hes lost weight and is playing a super long tall human. Maybe he can beat him with speed but im not holding my breath. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Dunerdr:
Chris Jones is going to have to go super human. That Oline is good. I dont like Clark on Mialahta or whatever. Hes lost weight and is playing a super long tall human. Maybe he can beat him with speed but im not holding my breath.
Agree...Jason Kelce is undersized and Cocaine Bear could disrupt the whole scene. It's not like Philly won't prepare for this, but the Eagles O has been predicated on beating teams up front, but a wilding CJ could put far more pressure on Hurts than he wants or is used to. [Reply]
Its not a scheme but we absolutely cant rely on them missing OL and playing like shit. This will ripple through the entire scheme. They will have time to throw the ball unlike cinci. And they will be able to run, unlike cinci.
I don't even necessarily agree with the premise that some genious scheme was what caused the cinci offense to sputter..so much as them getting some terrible injuries on OL etc.
Kind of like how our own offense sputtered when we got injured....(see superbowl vs tampa)
I really don't know Philly's team well enough to speculate on specific schemes other than I do expect more of a "bend dont break" approach rather than a hyper aggressive pass rush - simply because we were sharks smelling blood in the water vs cinci , and I doubt thats the case against PHI. [Reply]
The secondary needs to turn their heads on deep balls. Cheffers' crew will not be forgiving. Any contact likely gets called PI.
Obviously dominate the LOS like last week. Stop the run. Force Hurts to be one-dimensional. Maybe have Gay be a spy (if he's healthy). None of our other LBs are fast enough. [Reply]
Originally Posted by htismaqe:
I agree with a lot of what has been said.
We're going to have to blitz and even run blitz.
The DE's are going to have to stay sound and contain, not rush right upfield.
And the secondary is probably going to have to play more zone than they want to.
Great post. I was just getting ready to post the same suggestion for a dose of run blitzing. Personally not a huge fan of zone blitzing but sprinkle some of that in as well.
With contain being a primary duty for DE’s…Snead, Gay and even Chenal may likely feed coming from the gap created by Chris Jones double teams. [Reply]
I think we can all agree that we obviously need to stop the run.
Got any ideas how we might accomplish that?
I guess there's so many people critical of Spags and the scheme, I figured people would be chomping at the bit to tell us all what they'd do differently. [Reply]
Play games with the Philadelphia RPO action. Just mix up what you're doing to defend it. Drop guys into weird spots, send guys from unconventional angles. Try to get Hurts to hesitate and react. I probably sprinkle in a decent amount of cover 1 and cover 0 to make that happen.
Focus #2
Make Hurts beat you with tight window throws. His shoulder is not 100 percent, and he wasn't a huge arm strength guy to start with. Tight man press is the way to go here (tough against AJ Brown because he's so physical, but hopefully Sneed is up to the task).
Focus #3
Rally to the sidelines under control. In the regular season matchup last year, the Chiefs' lack of speed and instincts at LB and SS (Hitchens, Sorenson) was exploited with passes to the flats. The Chiefs have better personnel in the back seven now to contend with this (Gay, Bolton, Cook) but have to come downhill under control and able to make the play on the oustide.
Focus #4
Find a favorable matchup for Chris Jones. Maybe it's Landon Dickerson, who hyperextended his elbow and is playing in a brace. Maybe it's the RG. Maybe it's Lane Johnson (try to overwhelm the guy who needs groin surgery with power?). Find your best two approaches with Jones and roll with them, even if it means being unconventional.
Focus #5
Win first down. This was a big focus against the Bengals... keeping them out of second and medium or second and short. The Eagles' run game is so good, consistent, and efficient, and Sirianni is so aggressive, it's hard to stop the Eagles once they get to 2nd and 4-5. 3rd and 3 or less, be prepared to defend two downs to get the stop pretty much whever they are on the field. [Reply]
The problem with the whole "blitz and play zone on the back end" thing is that we're not that great at zone. Our corners are at their best playing man. Because of the youth in the secondary, some of biggest plays they've given up seems to have come in zones. So we'd be moving away from what WE do best.
Spags is just going to have to IQ 900 this motherfucker, as he's done before. He's going to have to study the ever living shit out the Eagles, figure out their tendencies, formations etc and get ahead. Because the Chiefs are compromised here, defensively. That's not a slight to the Chiefs, that's just what offenses with multiple solutions do to a defense.
He's going to have to stack boxes in early and obvious run downs, and he has to be on point with when to send a run blitz. He sends a run blitz down the wrong gap and the Eagles are gonna bust one. If he stacks the box, the Eagles will have chances with their 3 receivers, assuming they just don't run it at us anyway. He's going to have to switch it up between man and zone coverages on the back end all night long, whether it be a run down or a passing down.
The Eagles are versatile, and the Chiefs defense has a few areas that will be compromised, requiring extra resource allocation. Whether that be in the form of extra bodies to stop the run, extra rushers to get pressure, or extra DB's to stop 3 very high end receivers. Spags is going to have to know where to allocate and when, and he's gonna have to ace it.
Obviously the key is stopping the run. But stopping the run for this game means 3 YPC. But this is a team that QB sneaked twice in a row last week from inside the 5, and telegraphed it the whole time...and still got the fucking TD...against the 49ers of all defenses. If we get into 3rd and 2 type situations, it's gonna be really, really tough to get off the field.
TL;DR: Unless Spags calls the game of his life for 3 hrs, this is gonna have to be a Patrick Mahomes game. [Reply]
That's my opinion anyhow... it keeps 8 in the box.
They only have 2 WRs worth a shit in Smith and Brown and a solid TE in Geodert. Quez Watkins isn't going to beat us.
Sneed and McDuffie outside, Thornhill in high coverage and Reid down in the box with Gay, Chenal, and Bolton. You want to mix things up you can always rotate in Cook and play him in place of a LB. [Reply]
With all that said, i do think we have a distinct advantage in 3rd in longs. I just think it's gonna be really hard to get them into 3rd and long. [Reply]
