SB Nation User Blog: NJBammer

Eagles Christmas List

NJBammer — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 14:34:44 -0000

Just as a fun holiday exercise, let's make a Christmas list for our team.

As a fan, my first wish would be of course for a Superbowl championship, preferably over the Colts.

For Andy Reid, I wish for 2 things, a copy of "The Complete Handbook of Clock Management" by Homer Smith, and the DVD of "The Biggest Loser: The Workout - Weight Loss Yoga (2008)" (simply because the mental image of Andy Reid doing yoga is too rich to pass up).

For DeSean Jackson, a permanent nickname all can agree on.

For McNabb, a ring and finally the respect he deserves.

For Westbrook, a comfortable retirement with no further injuries.

For Dawk, a trade back to the Eagles today, so we can see him coming out of the tunnel in midnight green instead of orange on Sunday.

Please add any you may have, and Merry Christmas!

For a good laugh, the 2008 NFL draft scores

NJBammer — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 19:10:55 -0000

from 2008, here's an article where every team was scored.

Philadelphia Eagles - C (2.30) What the Eagles did right was trade down to get extra choices. What they did wrong was to waste some of them by over drafting players. Trevor Laws DT (47) is one of my favorite players. He has a non-stop motor and kept his head up and provided leadership during a tough season at ND. Desean Jackson KR (49) will be a specialty player. At most he will get 8-10 touches a game. He will never survive as a WR at his size and weight. Mike Gibson T (184) and King Dunlap T (230) were both need picks and good values. Jack Ikegwuonu CB (131) would have been a 1 st round player in 06 but fell because of an injury and less than exciting 2007 season. The other three picks were wasted.

Just as a by the way, 2 of the other 3 "wasted" picks were Quintin Demps and Joe Mays. This evaluation was kind of a total miss the whole way, wasn't it?

49-ers game prediction thread

NJBammer — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 14:26:14 -0000

See here for last week's thread, where I didn't do too badly in my final prediction (34-20, also predicting a DJax punt return TD). Of course, if I had been totally off, there's little chance I would be linking to it, would there?

Anyway, with a little help from DVOA, here's what I see:

What the Eagles do well - wrapped up from last week, we do almost everything well on offense, trying to take what is given and strike for big plays. On defense, despite a weak performance last week we have been a top unit all season long. If our D has any weak spot, it's in covering RB's in the passing game, and we're only ok in covering TEs.

What about the 49-ers?

Overall, a below average team, with a poor offense and a good defense. Since Smith took over, their offense has improved, though they are still not a great unit.

On offense, they have a TE with a lot of TDs, though his catch rate (catches/thrown to) is only 61%, not at an elite level (Gates is at 73%, Clark at 77%). Their RB is good, and will catch the ball out of the backfield. Their OL gives up a lot of sacks (8.6% of pass plays result in sacks, "good" for 27th in the NFL).

On defense, they are good both against the run and the pass. The good news is they have 2 glaring weaknesses, defending #1 WRs, and defending passes to RBs. Hmmmmm, do you know any team with a really good #1 WR, and a coach who loves to throw the ball to his RBs?

Predictions: Trent has a mad-on after being mugged with impunity last week in New York. He'll have at least 2 sacks. DJax will run free against their secondary, and McCoy will likely have a big game at least in the receiving area this week. Our D has been very good against the running game all year, and this weekend will likely be no exception. Expect a big game from Gore and TE Davis in catching passes, though. In the end, I see Smith throwing a couple of INTs, and just falling short.

Final score:

Eagles 24

49-ers 19

Share your gloating story

NJBammer — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 18:34:08 -0000

Up here in New Jersey, I don't get the chance to gloat as much as I would like. Just got one, though, as while on my lunch break I stopped by the store and saw a man wearing a Florida Gators sweatshirt. I casually strolled by and winked at him, gave him the thumbs up, and remarked "Roll Tide!"

He stared at me for a moment or two, then in an exaggerated (and not really fun kind of way) slapped his head and said "Oh, yeah!" I flatter myself into thinking I put a little pothole in the road for him today.

Anyone else want to share how they gently rubbed it in the faces of Florida fans? Maybe you're a co-worker with a Texas fan who was sure McCoy would win the Heisman? I'd say no picking on poor Auburn or Notre Dame fans, why kick them when they're down? Wait until they put on airs, then when we cut their knees out from under them we can gloat all day long.

Bama with 6(!) AP All American first teamers!

NJBammer — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 17:46:51 -0000

Mt Cody

Michael Johnson

This is simply an incredible change from where we were as a program 3 years ago. What a great class!

Alabama safety Mark Barron made the third-team, giving the Tide seven players who received AP All-America honors. Texas put three players -- kicker Hunter Lawrence, center Chris Hall and linebacker Sergio Kindle -- on the third team for a total of six overall.

Florida also had six players make the three teams, including cornerback Joe Haden and tight end Aaron Hernandez as first-teamers.

The SEC was the most represented conference on the first team, with 11 players, including Tennessee safety Eric Berry, South Carolina linebacker Eric Norwood and Georgia punter Drew Butler.

Trade Kolb?

NJBammer — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 16:06:31 -0000

Any thoughts about this? We have #5 looking like a kid again, #7 proving that he can in fact run a real offense, and Kolb, all under contract next year. Kolb with 2 impressive outings this year when McNabb was out. Time to trade Kolb? Would a team trade anything to give him a shot? What kind of compensation would we get?

By comparison, the Falcons traded Matt Schaub for 2 2nd round picks a few years ago, which is about as much as I can see us getting for Kolb. Make any sense?

Tennessee Hires Tiger Woods

NJBammer — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 20:35:53 -0000

Tennessee Hires Tiger Woods

Another high profile hire by UT.

Eagles vs. Giants prediction thread

NJBammer — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 18:08:54 -0000

Micro-breakdown (based in part on DVOA)

What the Eagles do:

Offense - Balance running and passing well, tend to exploit the opponent's weakness rather than dictate play on our own terms. WR playmakers. Overall a big-play offense which, on those game when big plays do not happen, looks crappy

Defense - Stop both the pass and the run well, rush the passer, generate turnovers in the passing game. Awesome against WRs, ok against TEs, poor against RB in the receiving game.

Special teams - hidden weapon this year, great in KOs and Punt returns, above average overall in everything else.

What the Giants do:

Offense - Pass the ball well, run the ball ok, some passing to RB. TE average in catching the ball. Most passing damage to their WRs, where 3 different WRs have at least 4 TD catches. Don't give up a lot of sacks (less than 5% of passes result in sacks)

Defense - Just ok overall, average against both the pass and run. DL living off previous seasons' reputation as pass rushers, not so much this year, though still above average.

Special teams - Hidden weakness this year, Above average in punt returns, poor in punt and kickoff coverage.

Prediction:

Eagles get short fields and big plays. Giants go into halftime down by 10. Eagles let up in 3rd quarter and Giants tie it up. Eagles go ahead in 4th and late INTs by Eli makes the ending score bigger than the game actually was. Possible DJax punt return for TD.

Eagles 34

Giants 20

Why Ingram should win the Doak (Outstanding RB) Award

NJBammer — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 19:58:03 -0000

ed.- bumped from the fanposts

Not that into individual awards, but if there is any justice in the awards, Ingram should easily win the award due to superior play against superior competition. Look at the finalists:

Toby Gerhart,Stanford - His counting stats are good, especially the TDs!

ATTEMPTS	YARDS	TOUCHDOWNS
311	1,736	26

Gerhart is not a receiving threat with 149 receiving yards, total of 1885 yards from scrimmage.

C.J. Spiller, Clemson - Not the stats Gerhart and Ingram put up, he did score a TD in every game.

ATTEMPTS	YARDS	TOUCHDOWNS
201	1,145	11

Mark Ingram, Alabama - You know him and his stats:

ATTEMPTS	YARDS	TOUCHDOWNS
249	1,542	15

Of course you throw in the 322 receiving yards for1864 yards from scrimmage.

I don't think there's any harm in ruling out Spiller here. I don't see him beating out Ingram or Gerhart. In total yards from scrimmage, Ingram and Gerhart are basically tied. So, looking at just the rushing,

YPC

Ingram: 6.2 YPC

Gerhart: 5.6 YPC

Edge is clearly to Ingram

TDs:

Ingram: 15

Gerhart: 26

Edge is to Gerhart, though I'd love to have the time to see how many TDs for both backs were short yardage (i.e. cheapies), which would have gone to other backs on Bama.

Competition:

Here the balance is extremely one sided. The toughest defense Gerhart faced was ranked #20 by FEI in Oregon. Overall he faced 4 teams with defenses between 20 and 30 in his season, rushing for 649 yards (162/game) on 122 carries (5.3 YPC).

Ingram, on the other hand, faced 6 defenses ranked in the top 20(!) during the year. During those games, he ran for 924 yards (154 YPG) on 146 carries (6.3 YPC).

Once again, the edge is fairly clearly on Ingram's side here.

Top games:

Top games for both players came against top defenses, with Gerhart running for 223 yards on 38(!) attempts (5.8 YPC) against #20 defense Oregon, while Ingram ran for 246 on 24 (10.25) against the #9 Defense SC. Ingram once again clearly had the best top game.

Worst game:

Here, Gerhart's worst game was quite a bit better than Ingram's worst one, where Gerhart had a game of 82 yards on 17 carries (4.8 YPC) against Wake (not a great defense in case you were wondering), while Ingram had the totally inexplicable Auburn game, running for only 30 yards on 16 attempts (1.9 YPC). Even though it was a tougher defense, you can't rule this one in anyone's favor but Gerhart's.

Overall:

While Gerhart has the more total rushing yards, when receiving yards are considered, Ingram ties him. Although Gerhart has more yards per game, Ingram has a much superior YPC. Gerhart has more TDs, but Ingram played against far superior competition. Overall, any close look at the numbers shows Ingram has been a better RB all year than Gerhart, or any other RB for that matter. Gerhart was run to death with a huge attempt count, but he did not as effectively as Ingram.

I think Gerhart might win tonight, based on first of all the fact that Ingram's worst game was the second to last of the season, and second of all because I sense a kind of anti-Bama sentiment in the air. Sort of a desire to recognize another team's accomplishments, since Alabama has the SEC Championship and a good shot at the NC. I'd much rather win the NC than Ingram win any award, but In think the overall picture is clear. Ingram is the superior back.

Long discussion of Eagles and Cowboys in December

NJBammer — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 18:22:14 -0000

Long discussion of Eagles and Cowboys in December

The upshot is this: The Eagless increases may have a lot to do with the Cowboys' decreases in December over the years.