SB Nation User Blog: cavortingEagle

The Defensive Fullback

cavortingEagle — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 19:27:39 -0000

I must admit I have a soft spot for the dude. So often vilified by many of us fans, Chris gets nothing but ignored in weekly media sessions. The fluff piece on PE.com about his volunteer work at a Voorhees Animal shelter really made me want him to be a good player.

There was an article a while back where Gocong describes himself as the Defensive Fullback (Brookover), in the article Gocong says that he can have a great game and not even show up once in the stat sheet. Everytime somebody blasts Gocong, I think about that article and wish I could offer up video evidence of what the heck he was talking about. Thanks to the "Anatomy of a Play" that they posted on PE.com today, I've got it.

The play in question was Spoon's strip sack. The video quality they post on PE.com isn't great, and you have to watch a bunch of stuff before you get to the play in question so I link you to NFL.com instead. I watched this play several times and will outline what happened after the jump.

The Eagles come out in a basic 4-3 look with the standard personnel. Parker, Patterson, Bunkley, Cole, Gocong, Witherspoon, Jordan, Samuel, Brown, Mikell, and Harris.

Just prior to the snap, Mikell and Gocong run up to the pressure the strong side of Washington's formation. Gocong moves up to become almost a 5th Defensive Lineman and Mikell replaces Gocong as the 3rd LB.

When the Ball is snapped, both Gocong and Mikell rush the passer, Cooley and the WR's release deep, and Spoon goes slightly delayed through the gap Mikell and Gocong attack.

This play worked for a couple of reasons:

1) Washington's LT bit on Trent's rush fake and essentially took himself out of the play.

2) Clinton Portis (in the diagram above, he's the back with no arrows) chose to help out up top where JP and Mikell were getting ridden off by Washington's RT and FB.

3) Chris Gocong engaged and sealed off the Redskin's guard, almost like you would hope a fullback would in order to open up a hole on a running play. Because of Gocong's block (if you will) a gigantic gap opened in the Redskins' offensive line for Spoon to rush through completely untouched. Portis made the wrong read or this might not have been a sack at all, but hey let's take what we can get.

Anyway, this is a perfect example of a play where Gocong doesn't get a number, but he absolutely contributed meaningfully to the play's outcome.

Really Cool Stuff from Doug Farrar

cavortingEagle — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 20:41:57 -0000

Really Cool Stuff from Doug Farrar

"How to beat the Zone Blitz" and additional notes from Doug Farrar of Football Outsiders and Smarter Stats.

Can't help myself.

cavortingEagle — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 15:48:46 -0000

Can't help myself.

Time to bring in Bill Cowher

cavortingEagle — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 18:16:43 -0000

I'm over Andy Reid. I can't take his play calling anymore. He should run the ball more. He should manage the clock better. In order to get over the last hurdle to winning a Super Bowl, the Eagles need to bring in a coach with experience winning a Super Bowl. Bill Cowher is out there and just about ready to start coaching again. Jeff Laurie should go get him. Peter King had an interesting note in his MMQB column that really emphasizes my point here and I think you guys should all check it out - it's the second stat of the week.

The Eagles and Andy Reid's agent,Bob LaMonte, are in negotiations to extend his contract beyond the 2010 season, after which the current deal is due to expire.

Why with the difficulties that the Eagles have had winning the big game should the Eagles even consider resigning Andy Reid? Bill Cowher is out there and we should go get him - unless of course he's already here...

[Note by cavortingEagle, 10/19/09 1:42 PM MDT ] edit.

Poll

Should Andy Reid be allowed to coach past this season, or has his tenure run it's course?

Run its course, bring in someone new.

344 votes

He's still a great coach, he'll win the big one eventually.

251 votes

595 votes | Poll has closed

BadNewz keeping people as pets

cavortingEagle — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 19:45:45 -0000

BadNewz keeping people as pets

Randall to be added to the Eagles honor roll

cavortingEagle — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 22:09:49 -0000

Randall to be added to the Eagles honor roll

I still throw better "rolling away from the blitz" than just standing around. Much deserved.

PFW Article on the dominating D

cavortingEagle — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 13:13:35 -0000

PFW Article on the dominating D

This is a really good article that runs down some of McDermott's aggressive play calling on D

Tackling Vick is for the Dogs

cavortingEagle — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 17:42:39 -0000

Tackling Vick is for the Dogs

From the write up, this seems to be a good campaign.

Worst 4th Down Decision in 2008

cavortingEagle — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 21:39:19 -0000

Advanced NFL Stats is a tremendous website for nerds who find the numbers behind the game interesting. The author doesn't typically post on a daily basis, but when he does the post is usually thought provoking. I check his site about once per week. Today I stumbled upon this gem where Andy's decision to punt the ball back to Cincinatti late in the game is derided as the worst 4th down decision of the year. According to the author's methodology, giving Cincy the ball back with so much time left in the game gave Cincinatti almost a 1 in 3 chance of pulling out the game, whereas converting the 4th and 1 would have given the Birds about a 60 percent chance to pull the game out in regulation (they only would have needed another 15 yards for a long FG)...

The author's methodology for determining win probability is fairly sound and well documented (that last link is not for the faint of heart). It's also something which can be evaluated on a play by play basis and the site provides in game win probabilities for some (all?) games during the acutal game.

Knowing what we know now, playing for the draw worked just fine, but at the time we all would have liked to have seen a little more aggression. Would you have punted, or gone for it with the game on the line in the fourth quarter?

Poll

The situation is: 4th and 1. The game is tied. You're on your own 49 and there is only one minute and fifty six seconds left in the game. Do you

Punt, with the confidence that Sav can pin the opposing team deep?

25 votes

Go for it? Give it to Buck, sneak Don or knowing Andy toss a quick swing pass?

74 votes

Run screaming and thank the stars you don't have to make decisions like this in your line of work?

12 votes

111 votes | Poll has closed

A couple more notes about Jim Johnson's impact on the NFL.

cavortingEagle — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 21:05:23 -0000

I've never been one to spend much time on the passing of a friend or family member. I prefer to celebrate their life and hope they discover what they wished for when they get where they are going. That said, two articles I've read today (both linked to from Football Outsiders) are worth consideration in large part of their celebration of Jim Johnson's career as Eagles Defensive Coordinator.

The first is a note from the Houston Chronicle which contains a diagram of one of the blitz packages the Eagles used against the Steelers, after breaking down the salient points of the diagram the author notes:

While this blitz package certainly put the Eagles defense at risk, Johnson understood how to balance risk/reward. The Steelers had to change how they approached protections against A-gap blitzes for fear that more teams would copy Johnson. Sure enough, the Steelers saw the exact same blitz package from another team later in the season, but the Steelers had learned their lesson after being schooled by Johnson.

The whole entry is worth a read, check it out (also linked from the fanshots by bullpen116).

The other article is written by one of the Football Outsider's main contributors Doug Farrar and was published on hs blog for the Washington Post Smarter Stats. Farrar runs down the remarkable statistical dominance that Johnson's Eagles Defenses have had over the past ten years, but he concludes his piece by suggesting:

My hope is that Johnson's legacy and memory brings more visibility to all great assistant coaches - including and especially to the Hall of Fame voters. Assistant coaches are a woefully underrepresented class in Canton, and this needs to change.

Johnson's name wouldn't be a bad place to start.

Anyway read Doug's post and be marvel at the consistency Jim got from his defenses.

Jim Johnson was never a head coach, he never wanted to be one. Should that preclude his inclusion in the Hall of Fame? Are Johnson's innovations enough to warrant his inclusion into the Hall? I'd say yes, but I'm just a fan. What about Peter King and his compatriots? We shall see.