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This article nails down the Eagles' problems big-time. Thought you guys might want to read this article.
By Sam Monson | Pro Football Focus
This wasn't the situation the Philadelphia Eagles expected to be in heading into a Week 12 "Monday Night Football" matchup with the Carolina Panthers.
The Eagles are 3-7, losers of six in a row and the "Dream Team" has turned into Andy Reid's nightmare. Defensive coordinator Juan Castillo was fired as a scapegoat for the struggles just weeks ago, but already Reid looks like a dead man walking as we head into the final stretch of the season.
How did the 2012 season go so wrong for the Eagles?
The Nnamdi Asomugha sweepstakes
The hype surrounding the Eagles started during free agency in 2011 when Philadelphia landed Asomugha. He was seen as the marquee free agent of that offseason and a true shutdown corner. The trouble is that he is neither.
Asomugha's reputation was inflated by being somewhat sheltered in Oakland. He played almost exclusively man coverage for the Raiders and rarely played anywhere other than the right side of the defense, the blind side for right-handed quarterbacks. While top corners move around to shadow top receivers, Asomugha played 82 percent of his snaps at right corner over his past two seasons in Oakland. Quarterbacks naturally target their open side more frequently, and given the other players in the Raiders' secondary, Asomugha was simply avoided for the most part.
Over his last three seasons for the Raiders he averaged just 29 targets a season, fewer than two per game. In the past three fully-healthy seasons Darrelle Revis has played, he has averaged 93 targets per season, three times more than Asomugha.
In his first season with the Eagles, Asomugha's targets rose to 47, and he allowed 61.7 percent of those passes to be caught, coughing up four touchdowns in the process. This season things are even worse: He has already been thrown at 41 times and given up three scores, while being beaten for an average of 17 yards per catch as he struggles badly to adjust to life playing zone coverage. The bottom line is that winning the Asomugha sweepstakes may have hurt the Eagles far more than losing it.
The O-line decimation
The Eagles will go into this game with only one member of their original starting line, left guard Evan Mathis, in the starting lineup. Their current line is almost a completely second-string unit. Franchise left tackle Jason Peters, coming off the best season of his career, in which he allowed just 21 total pressures, injured his Achilles before the season to shelve him for the year. Center Jason Kelce was enjoying a great start to the season, allowing just a single pressure in his 138 snaps before he went down for the year, while Danny Watkins at right guard and Todd Herremans at tackle have both suffered injuries and forced changes.
Mathis is playing at an All-Pro level despite the wreckage around him, not allowing a single sack yet this season, but the pressure is coming from all other quarters. Michael Vick saw pressure on a massive 42.9 percent of his drop backs before he was finally injured and Nick Foles has been pressured on 33.3 percent of his drop backs. To whatever degree you believe Vick didn't help the offensive line, there is no doubt that any team forced to field a unit comprised of 80 percent backups will struggle badly surrendering pressure no matter who is playing QB.
The decline of the "Wide 9"
The Eagles have used the famous "Wide 9" alignment the past two seasons, in which their defensive ends have lined up unusually wide of the formation, giving them room to rush with impunity and stress opposing protection schemes. It worked well last season, and the team combined for a massive 321 total pressures on the season, 134 of which came from its starting defensive ends. This season, though, the Eagles are on pace for just 240 total pressures. Both ends tallied 11-plus sacks last season, but Trent Cole has only two through 10 games and Jason Babin has just five this year. The pair is on track for just 64 pressures, or 47.8 percent of their 2011 production.
The team has shored up the vulnerable middle with the addition of DeMeco Ryans, but the formation just isn't generating as much pressure as it did last season. The problem with the "Wide 9" alignment is that it makes rushing in unison very difficult. Twists, stunts and the traditional pass-rushing moves used by rushers along the front four in tandem become extremely impractical because of the distance the ends line up from the tackles, and a huge proportion of the pressure teams apply comes from those moves. The Eagles have to rely on beating their man one-on-one, and this year they haven't been able to do that.
The Vick problem
He may not have been the root cause of the offensive problems, but Vick certainly hasn't helped matters. The offensive line has been leaking pressure all season and Vick has completed just 40.7 percent of his passes when pressured for one touchdown and five picks. If that wasn't bad enough, he undid much of the good work he did with his legs by putting the ball on the ground five times, often in crucial situations. If he could have been kept clean in the pocket all year, the Eagles may have had a fighting chance -- Vick has completed 69.2 percent of his passes when not pressured this year, for 8.2 yards per attempt and a touchdown to interception ratio of 10-to-4.
There is no question that the Eagles are in complete disarray right now. Time will only tell if Reid is back next season, but whoever takes over the team is going to have to turnaround a team with a multitude of issues.
