November 04, 2015
Michael Perez/AP
It'll be hard for the Eagles OL to play worse than they did Week 2 against the Cowboys.
Way back in Week 2 against the Dallas Cowboys, the Philadelphia Eagles managed just seven yards on 17 carries. The astute Chip Kelly said, "We just didn't block them." If you want to go back and re-live the carnage of that day in gif form, you may do so here. An example:
Or you can just look at the following "picked the right play in Tecmo Bowl gif" and get the idea just as effectively:
Dave Zangaro of CSN Philly talked with the Eagles' offensive linemen yesterday, and they're aware of how bad they were that day.
“No, I definitely didn’t forget it. It disgusts me,” Eagles right tackle Lane Johnson said. “Especially, because [Cowboys linebacker] Sean Lee said that they won it because of the O-line play. It’s a slap in the face.
“I promise you that me, [center Jason Kelce] and everybody else is embarrassed about that and we’re going to give everything we got in this game. We’re going to go in there with our game face on.”
The Dallas Cowboys released Joseph Randle on Tuesday, which might come as a surprise to all of these people with much higher expectations. Randle was on pace for 832 yards (4.1 yards per carry) before being cut. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Prediction #1: Joseph Randle gains 1000+ rushing yards & has a higher YPC than Murray had in 2014 (4.7). Randle averaged 6.7 YPC in 2014.
— Jordan Ross (@TheJordanRoss) July 22, 2015
Jimmy note: Brandon's post is full of "Randle is a god among men" tweets. As we noted yesterday, while there's little question DeMarco Murray has been a disappointment through his first seven games in Philly, there's also little question the Cowboys gravely miss his production.
A season ago, through seven games, here were Murray's numbers:
| Opponent | Rushes | Yards | YPC | TD |
| 49ers | 22 | 118 | 5.4 | 1 |
| Titans | 29 | 167 | 5.8 | 1 |
| Rams | 24 | 100 | 4.2 | 1 |
| Saints | 24 | 149 | 6.2 | 2 |
| Texans | 31 | 136 | 4.4 | 0 |
| Seahawks | 28 | 115 | 4.1 | 1 |
| Giants | 28 | 128 | 4.6 | 1 |
| TOTAL | 186 | 913 | 4.9 | 7 |
"Because of his intelligence and because of the guy he is and how dedicated he is to learning the scheme, we move Fletcher around a lot," Bill Davis said. "You just can't say, ‘There he is, here is how we're going to double-team him.’ He's out wide as an edge rusher; he’s in guard as the three-technique rusher; he's on the nose; we've stacked him in linebacker looks and brought him."
That was evident in Week 5 against the Saints, as Cox played perhaps the best game of his career. He recorded six tackles, three sacks and two forced fumbles, and displayed his versatility when sacking Drew Brees. On the first one, he lined up over the left tackle (above) and on the second (below), he covered the center.
Jimmy note: Nice job by Josh. Be sure to check out the film breakdown in full.
Apparently, Ryan Mathews really was hurt.
Last Monday afternoon, Eagles head coach Chip Kelly surprised everyone when he said Mathews hurt his groin in the first half in the loss to Carolina (see story).
It was surprising because no one mentioned the injury the night before and because Mathews seemed plenty healthy running for a 63-yard touchdown after the supposed groin tweak.
But as the team returned to practice after the bye week, Mathews corroborated Kelly’s story.
“Yeah, a little bit,” Mathews said on Tuesday when asked if his groin was a problem against Carolina. “I tweaked it on a run play and I told Duce [Staley] about it.”
Jimmy note: As we covered previously, here's the 22-yard run where Kelly said Mathews hurt his groin.
After that play, Mathews did not appear to be in any pain, and he stayed in the game on the next play.
That play occurred before Mathews' 63-yard TD run, shown here:
Kelly intimated that you could see Mathews tweak his groin again on the 63-yard TD run. "If you watch him, when he pulled by Kuechly, he said he felt it again, he didn't think he was going to make it in the end zone. And then Duce monitored him after that, so Duce was dealing with that, in terms of whether he can go in the game after that or he can't go in the game after. We used him a little bit, but that's really the whole status of the whole thing. I'm telling you guys exactly what's going on."
But so ends #GroinGate, I guess.
• Sam Bradford supporters (including Chip Kelly) can't name anything he does well.
• Kiko Alonso plans on playing vs. Cowboys
• NFC Hierarchy/Obituary after Week 8
• Five facts about the Giants' historically awful defense
And be sure you check back at noon Wedensday for our weekly Eagles chat.
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