Philadelphia Eagles coaches game analysis

Just finished watching the game through a few times and there's a lot of things to take away.

First, and most importantly, we were better in the most important statistic - winning. We won, which is always better to look at after the game because, despite missed opportunities and fails in different areas, we still won and have room to improve.

There are a number of areas where we excelled in this game and we can never forget that. Was it the prettiest win ever? No, but not all of them are going to look like the best offense and defense against the worse defense and offense. Good teams find ways to win in games like that - and we did. To the credit of the Eagles defense - they threw everything they had at us. They mixed up their coverages and defense more than any other team I've seen in a long time - and it seemed to knock the whole offense out of rhythm at times.

I still find CK hard to evaluate though. There are times when you see reads he goes through or throws he makes and go, "WOW!" that was freaking amazing. Then, there are other reads he misses and throws he misses and you say, "wow....." - not in a good way. The thing that's hard to evaluate is that he'll miss throws when he's got a clean pocket, good footwork, good throwing mechanics with an open receiver; but then, make a pinpoint throw on the run into tight coverage.

When you watch CK play it's hard for me to say, as some have postulated, that he's not being taught good fundamentals as I often see his footwork and throwing mechanics are good. Sometimes he's just flat inaccurate.

He's also shown a complete lack of situational awareness at times notice how I say, "at times" and not "all the time". It's getting really old to see him run out of bounds for a 3 yard loss.... THROW THE BALL AWAY DUDE!!! Negative plays kill drives and what good is it to avoid a 3 yard sack in the backfield to run out of the pocket and go out of bounds for a 3 yard loss???? The delay of game penalties are also drive killers. We were driving with a chance to make it a 2 score game with a very make-able 3rd and 3 when CK commits a delay of game penalty which makes it 3rd and 8, then we get 5 yards on a the next play and have to kick a FG instead..... Those kind of penalties can cost you games - no matter how good you are, no matter how good your coaching is, if you make silly mistakes like that you can lose games - plain and simple.

As we won this week, I'll start out with the bad and then focus on the good for this week, starting with the Offense:

The bad: O-line play. They gave up way too much pressure in pass protection. There were times where the Eagles only brought 3 guys and were getting pressure. There were times when the Eagles feigned blitzes and only brought 4 and got immediate pressure. Each guy on the line got beat in pass pro at some point - the worst offenders were Boone and Staley with Iupati a close 3rd. However, Staley was, for the most part, excellent in the run game as well and Iupati. Boone continues to dissapoint. Hopefully Anthony Davis won't be out too long because he looked very solid in the game and Martin is definitely not the player Davis is.

There were some really bad play calls at different times. The Power off tackle run on 3rd and 1 with our Jumbo package was a terrible call. Also, there were some passing game calls that were completely ineffective. There was also, on one play, where we ended up having Bruce Miller matched up on Trent Cole - they're best pass rusher, in pass pro - that's not a good idea.

However, there were also some near genius calls by formation, timing and design. Kind of frustrating - a lot like watching CK as a QB. There were times when you sit back and marvel at some of the play design and how Roman knew to call that exact play to exactly counteract what the opponent was doing and then other times when he didn't. Bear in mind, that every O-coordinator is not going to win every play call, Bill Walsh didn't, and neither will Roman. But, some of them just didn't make sense, whereas some of them were pure genius.
Some of the calls that might seem terrible I actually didn't have a hard time with. The run on 3rd and 14 from the 31 yard line late in the game - Staley had just gone down with an injury, Davis had already gone down, Vernon Davis was out. So, you had 2 backup tackles against a defense that loves to come after the QB. You're in FG range, very unlikely to get a 1st down, and the Eagles were getting pressure most of the game as it was, do you really want to risk a sack to move you out of FG range in that situation??

The Good about the Offense:

Frank Gore is still Frank Gore. He's lost a little on his top speed, but that's never been the staple of his game. He still has the ability to accelerate up to top speed very quickly. He doesn't look like a 31 year old back, he still looks like a young guy carrying the ball. There were some beautifully designed and timed runs(some were obviously called out of the huddle and others looked like it was a check to a run). We also stuck with the run game - which was great to see. You're not going to win on every run play, but you will wear the other team down and keep your defense off the field - which we saw the affect of.

Anthony Davis looked really good when he was in. He was solid in pass pro and dominant in the run game - really unfortunate that he's going to be out.

The WR have made some outstanding catches in recent weeks and have also made some big plays with the ball in their hands. We just have to eliminate some phantom "Offensive pass interference" calls and we'll do much better against man-coverage(we struggled against man coverage this week).

The bad - Defense:

Not much to say...... they pretty much played an unbelievable game...... Couldn't really find any faults.....Way to go guys!!!!

The good - Defense:
Antoine Bethea deserves Defensive player of the week honors. His performance was flat out dynamic. Yes, he caused the 2 turnovers, but it was so much more than that as well. He played on of the best games I've seen from a defensive player in quite a while. All I can say is, "WOW!" Super exciting to see. He saved the game for us on more than one occasion. He had the 2 turnovers, but also had a TD saving tackle on McCoy at the 2 yard line that gave us the set up for the goal line stand, then got pressure on Foles the very next play. He also made some great open field tackles. Overall, a fantastic, superb, I don't have enough adjectives to describe it, performance.

Vic Fangio called one of the best games I've ever seen him call. Troy Aikman and Jimmy Johnson both said it after the game, that they think Fangio might be the best D-Coord in the league and I'm starting to agree with them. This was supposed to be one of the most dangerous offenses in the league and he completely nullified their game. He called all sorts of different things to disrupt the passing game and the O-line's blocking schemes.

Also, as a note to all those who wish for us to play with more press coverage - this game is a great illustration as to why we don't do it very often. Because, without a press and both corners always playing with a cushion with both safeties back at the snap, the QB and receivers never know where the safety help is going to be. They couldn't audible at the line, they couldn't run a lot of their sight adjust routes and overall, were disrupted in the passing game AND running game by our looks.

Jim Tomsula - the D-line played lights out and we have to have one of the best coached, if not the best coached, D-lines in the league. Our guys all played great games on the line - including great plays made by backups Dobbs and Dial. Dial in particular looked really good in this game - more so from the mental side, which is exciting. Thl will touch on the screens, but you will see that our D-line had a lot to do with the ineffectiveness of Philadelphia's screen game.

Michael Wilhoite - He's really starting to look good. He's really starting to settle in to his spot and you can see that playing next to a guy like Willis really has upped his level of play. He's looking better each week and is really flying around. I'd give his 1st week performance a C- but this one a B+ to A-

As usual, breakdowns to follow.

Reserved for thumbnails

Originally posted by thl408:
Reserved for thumbnails

^ That's always my favorite post. It's like a promissory note that says, "wait right here, something good is about to happen"....

Wilhoite has stuck out the last 2 weeks. Glad to see him playing so well.

Originally posted by jonnydel:

Originally posted by thl408:

Reserved for thumbnails

^ That's always my favorite post. It's like a promissory note that says, "wait right here, something good is about to happen"....

I totally agree....it's like looking at the pass playbook, instead of X's and O's it's the real personnel.

Originally posted by jonnydel:
Just finished watching the game through a few times and there's a lot of things to take away.

First, and most importantly, we were better in the most important statistic - winning. We won, which is always better to look at after the game because, despite missed opportunities and fails in different areas, we still won and have room to improve.

There are a number of areas where we excelled in this game and we can never forget that. Was it the prettiest win ever? No, but not all of them are going to look like the best offense and defense against the worse defense and offense. Good teams find ways to win in games like that - and we did. To the credit of the Eagles defense - they threw everything they had at us. They mixed up their coverages and defense more than any other team I've seen in a long time - and it seemed to knock the whole offense out of rhythm at times.

I still find CK hard to evaluate though. There are times when you see reads he goes through or throws he makes and go, "WOW!" that was freaking amazing. Then, there are other reads he misses and throws he misses and you say, "wow....." - not in a good way. The thing that's hard to evaluate is that he'll miss throws when he's got a clean pocket, good footwork, good throwing mechanics with an open receiver; but then, make a pinpoint throw on the run into tight coverage.

When you watch CK play it's hard for me to say, as some have postulated, that he's not being taught good fundamentals as I often see his footwork and throwing mechanics are good. Sometimes he's just flat inaccurate.

He's also shown a complete lack of situational awareness at times notice how I say, "at times" and not "all the time". It's getting really old to see him run out of bounds for a 3 yard loss.... THROW THE BALL AWAY DUDE!!! Negative plays kill drives and what good is it to avoid a 3 yard sack in the backfield to run out of the pocket and go out of bounds for a 3 yard loss???? The delay of game penalties are also drive killers. We were driving with a chance to make it a 2 score game with a very make-able 3rd and 3 when CK commits a delay of game penalty which makes it 3rd and 8, then we get 5 yards on a the next play and have to kick a FG instead..... Those kind of penalties can cost you games - no matter how good you are, no matter how good your coaching is, if you make silly mistakes like that you can lose games - plain and simple.

As we won this week, I'll start out with the bad and then focus on the good for this week, starting with the Offense:

The bad: O-line play. They gave up way too much pressure in pass protection. There were times where the Eagles only brought 3 guys and were getting pressure. There were times when the Eagles feigned blitzes and only brought 4 and got immediate pressure. Each guy on the line got beat in pass pro at some point - the worst offenders were Boone and Staley with Iupati a close 3rd. However, Staley was, for the most part, excellent in the run game as well and Iupati. Boone continues to dissapoint. Hopefully Anthony Davis won't be out too long because he looked very solid in the game and Martin is definitely not the player Davis is.

There were some really bad play calls at different times. The Power off tackle run on 3rd and 1 with our Jumbo package was a terrible call. Also, there were some passing game calls that were completely ineffective. There was also, on one play, where we ended up having Bruce Miller matched up on Trent Cole - they're best pass rusher, in pass pro - that's not a good idea.

However, there were also some near genius calls by formation, timing and design. Kind of frustrating - a lot like watching CK as a QB. There were times when you sit back and marvel at some of the play design and how Roman knew to call that exact play to exactly counteract what the opponent was doing and then other times when he didn't. Bear in mind, that every O-coordinator is not going to win every play call, Bill Walsh didn't, and neither will Roman. But, some of them just didn't make sense, whereas some of them were pure genius.
Some of the calls that might seem terrible I actually didn't have a hard time with. The run on 3rd and 14 from the 31 yard line late in the game - Staley had just gone down with an injury, Davis had already gone down, Vernon Davis was out. So, you had 2 backup tackles against a defense that loves to come after the QB. You're in FG range, very unlikely to get a 1st down, and the Eagles were getting pressure most of the game as it was, do you really want to risk a sack to move you out of FG range in that situation??

The Good about the Offense:

Frank Gore is still Frank Gore. He's lost a little on his top speed, but that's never been the staple of his game. He still has the ability to accelerate up to top speed very quickly. He doesn't look like a 31 year old back, he still looks like a young guy carrying the ball. There were some beautifully designed and timed runs(some were obviously called out of the huddle and others looked like it was a check to a run). We also stuck with the run game - which was great to see. You're not going to win on every run play, but you will wear the other team down and keep your defense off the field - which we saw the affect of.

Anthony Davis looked really good when he was in. He was solid in pass pro and dominant in the run game - really unfortunate that he's going to be out.

The WR have made some outstanding catches in recent weeks and have also made some big plays with the ball in their hands. We just have to eliminate some phantom "Offensive pass interference" calls and we'll do much better against man-coverage(we struggled against man coverage this week).

The bad - Defense:

Not much to say...... they pretty much played an unbelievable game...... Couldn't really find any faults.....Way to go guys!!!!

The good - Defense:
Antoine Bethea deserves Defensive player of the week honors. His performance was flat out dynamic. Yes, he caused the 2 turnovers, but it was so much more than that as well. He played on of the best games I've seen from a defensive player in quite a while. All I can say is, "WOW!" Super exciting to see. He saved the game for us on more than one occasion. He had the 2 turnovers, but also had a TD saving tackle on McCoy at the 2 yard line that gave us the set up for the goal line stand, then got pressure on Foles the very next play. He also made some great open field tackles. Overall, a fantastic, superb, I don't have enough adjectives to describe it, performance.

Vic Fangio called one of the best games I've ever seen him call. Troy Aikman and Jimmy Johnson both said it after the game, that they think Fangio might be the best D-Coord in the league and I'm starting to agree with them. This was supposed to be one of the most dangerous offenses in the league and he completely nullified their game. He called all sorts of different things to disrupt the passing game and the O-line's blocking schemes.

Also, as a note to all those who wish for us to play with more press coverage - this game is a great illustration as to why we don't do it very often. Because, without a press and both corners always playing with a cushion with both safeties back at the snap, the QB and receivers never know where the safety help is going to be. They couldn't audible at the line, they couldn't run a lot of their sight adjust routes and overall, were disrupted in the passing game AND running game by our looks.

Jim Tomsula - the D-line played lights out and we have to have one of the best coached, if not the best coached, D-lines in the league. Our guys all played great games on the line - including great plays made by backups Dobbs and Dial. Dial in particular looked really good in this game - more so from the mental side, which is exciting. Thl will touch on the screens, but you will see that our D-line had a lot to do with the ineffectiveness of Philadelphia's screen game.

Michael Wilhoite - He's really starting to look good. He's really starting to settle in to his spot and you can see that playing next to a guy like Willis really has upped his level of play. He's looking better each week and is really flying around. I'd give his 1st week performance a C- but this one a B+ to A-

As usual, breakdowns to follow.

Totally agree with the bolded. I mentioned that in my "Thoughts" post.

Bethea was all over the field. Pick, forced fumble, stop of McCoy when otherwise Shady scores the go-ahead TD, a few stops for no gain, staying backside to prevent cutback.

He's not the intimidator that Whiner is...but he was simply sound in every aspect.

Great breakdown as always jonnydel and agree with all of it, although I haven't had a chance to see the 49er run game in action as I watch the game in segmented parts. PHI definitely mixed up their coverage calls. Easily the most out of the first four opponents. No doubt trying to confuse Kap, and it worked, as I saw Kap hang on to the ball on several occasions where I thought he had time to pull the trigger.

I think Bethea's greatest strength could be his ability to read a play and get into position. I have seen him on several occasions jump a route before the WR breaks on the route which is simply uncanny. The splash plays versus PHI may have made us all notice him, but he's been a very stabilizing presence all season.

There seems to be something lacking with the new longsnapper, Kyle Nelson. It feels like he can do more in terms of blocking after snapping the ball. The blocked FG versus ARI came up the gut and so did the blocked punt in this game. I know the 49ers were backed up near their own goal line, but between Nelson, Dahl, and Skuta, I thought the 49ers had the numbers to block every rusher that was coming. We'll see that play cut up.

Your summary seems very mixed bag and that's the kind of game it was, except for the defense which was lights out.

You can't find better commentary than this stuff here. Better Rivals podcast is pretty good too.

Originally posted by OregonNiner87:
You can't find better commentary than this stuff here. Better Rivals podcast is pretty good too.

You sir are a freaking genius.

Originally posted by thl408:

Great breakdown as always jonnydel and agree with all of it, although I haven't had a chance to see the 49er run game in action as I watch the game in segmented parts. PHI definitely mixed up their coverage calls. Easily the most out of the first four opponents. No doubt trying to confuse Kap, and it worked, as I saw Kap hang on to the ball on several occasions where I thought he had time to pull the trigger.

I think Bethea's greatest strength could be his ability to read a play and get into position. I have seen him on several occasions jump a route before the WR breaks on the route which is simply uncanny. The splash plays versus PHI may have made us all notice him, but he's been a very stabilizing presence all season.

There seems to be something lacking with the new longsnapper, Kyle Nelson. It feels like he can do more in terms of blocking after snapping the ball. The blocked FG versus ARI came up the gut and so did the blocked punt in this game. I know the 49ers were backed up near their own goal line, but between Nelson, Dahl, and Skuta, I thought the 49ers had the numbers to block every rusher that was coming. We'll see that play cut up.

Your summary seems very mixed bag and that's the kind of game it was, except for the defense which was lights out.

Did you happen to see, on the pick 6 was it a double slant concept. It kinda looked that way on the broadcast. Also on double slants, do we seem to go to the trailing slant? Are we maybe giving a tell that Philly was able to bait kap?

Originally posted by Niners816:

Originally posted by thl408:
Great breakdown as always jonnydel and agree with all of it, although I haven't had a chance to see the 49er run game in action as I watch the game in segmented parts. PHI definitely mixed up their coverage calls. Easily the most out of the first four opponents. No doubt trying to confuse Kap, and it worked, as I saw Kap hang on to the ball on several occasions where I thought he had time to pull the trigger.

I think Bethea's greatest strength could be his ability to read a play and get into position. I have seen him on several occasions jump a route before the WR breaks on the route which is simply uncanny. The splash plays versus PHI may have made us all notice him, but he's been a very stabilizing presence all season.

There seems to be something lacking with the new longsnapper, Kyle Nelson. It feels like he can do more in terms of blocking after snapping the ball. The blocked FG versus ARI came up the gut and so did the blocked punt in this game. I know the 49ers were backed up near their own goal line, but between Nelson, Dahl, and Skuta, I thought the 49ers had the numbers to block every rusher that was coming. We'll see that play cut up.

Your summary seems very mixed bag and that's the kind of game it was, except for the defense which was lights out.

Did you happen to see, on the pick 6 was it a double slant concept. It kinda looked that way on the broadcast. Also on double slants, do we seem to go to the trailing slant? Are we maybe giving a tell that Philly was able to bait kap?

You are correct it was double slants. We will for sure hit that play. If I don't I'm sure jonnydel will as I'm curious what he thought of that play. It was briefly touched on in the Kap thread.

Originally posted by Niners816:

Originally posted by thl408:
Great breakdown as always jonnydel and agree with all of it, although I haven't had a chance to see the 49er run game in action as I watch the game in segmented parts. PHI definitely mixed up their coverage calls. Easily the most out of the first four opponents. No doubt trying to confuse Kap, and it worked, as I saw Kap hang on to the ball on several occasions where I thought he had time to pull the trigger.

I think Bethea's greatest strength could be his ability to read a play and get into position. I have seen him on several occasions jump a route before the WR breaks on the route which is simply uncanny. The splash plays versus PHI may have made us all notice him, but he's been a very stabilizing presence all season.

There seems to be something lacking with the new longsnapper, Kyle Nelson. It feels like he can do more in terms of blocking after snapping the ball. The blocked FG versus ARI came up the gut and so did the blocked punt in this game. I know the 49ers were backed up near their own goal line, but between Nelson, Dahl, and Skuta, I thought the 49ers had the numbers to block every rusher that was coming. We'll see that play cut up.

Your summary seems very mixed bag and that's the kind of game it was, except for the defense which was lights out.

Did you happen to see, on the pick 6 was it a double slant concept. It kinda looked that way on the broadcast. Also on double slants, do we seem to go to the trailing slant? Are we maybe giving a tell that Philly was able to bait kap?

One of us will show that play, but, it was a double slant pattern and Philly doubled down on a bet for short routes. They brought heavy pressure while playing the underneath routes in a zone blitz. It's hard to fault him too much on that play because everything happened so fast and you couldn't tell it was a zone until the last second. Still, a pick is a pick is a pick..... But, Philly was gambling that they were gonna get the rush to CK before he had any time for a downfield route.

Here's an example of how I thought Boone's play has been subpar. This play really cost us in the game. It was the first drive of the game and ended up pushing us back so far that we got the punt blocked:


Philly shows a heavy blitz look with 6 guys on the LOS. However, we still have enough guys to block, even if they do bring the house. Philly, however, only brings 4 as they drop the 2 outside guys. They still get a guy through unblocked. If you can get to the QB by his last step by only bringing 4 -the other team has no chance in Hades....



Boone needs to be taking the "A" gap guy no matter what, instead, it appears that he though Gore was going to take that guy. Gore, however, has the "b" gap.... Boone slides over as if to help Davis on his guy, or to pickup the DE so that Davis will take the end man of the LOS. However, that guy drops into coverage.


All Boone does is stick his arm out on the guy - never tries to block him. Gore is stuck behind him ready to cover the "B" gap. By the time he see's the guy come through unblocked, it's too late.


You see how there's a guy through unblocked and he's going to be at CK when CK hits his back step. CK tries to evade but ends up losing another couple yard trying.

Boone has to understand where Gore's help is going to be and where he has to be. You cannot give up inside pressure like this on any play, let alone a 3rd down. There's nothing anyone else on the team can do when a guy fails this badly.

On the next play:

The Punt coverage unit. With the punt block coming right up the middle, the players to focus on are Dahl (#43), Nelson (#86), and Skuta (#51). Notice where Dahl is aligned, to the left of the formation.


Right after the snap, Nelson needs to be faster stepping to his right in order to anchor himself down versus orange. He should also understand that he has help (Dalh) behind him and feel free to fully commit himself to blocking orange. Skuta is trying to split the difference.


Orange has now beaten Nelson and Skuta has two rushers coming at him.


Skuta is overpowered by orange and blue, though not his fault.


What should have happened is Skuta takes blue 1 on 1. Nelson takes orange 1 on 1. If the defender behind orange decided to rush, that's on Dahl to pick him up. Nelson got caught trying to do too much, account for orange and the guy behind him, who never rushed.