#ref: marcus starters

[writermuses]

Open to: Anyone (mun/muse/fc must be 21+) Plot: Mark has just had his maiden victory in Formula 1 at the Hangaroring in Hungary. Your muse wants to celebrate before he's off to Spa in Belgium. // All connections except family are welcome. Muse: Marcus De Vrise, 22, is an F1 driver for McLaren; Career mirrors Oscar Piastri. Note: He is hearing but nonverbal, so he will communicate with ASL, text, writing.

Marcus walked into the crowded room, a small smile on his typically stoic face as everyone cheered for him. This was the dream, the one thing he'd wanted since he started karting after the incident that took his voice. Sure, it would be great to win the World Drivers Championship, but it was a huge deal to even win a single F1 Grand Prix. Taking out his phone, he took a few pictures and but as he went to record a quick video he saw the one person that always made him feel comfortable in a crowd. Their finger curled at him and his smile grew a little wider. With small, polite nods and brief signs of thanks, Mark closed the distance. "You came, but are you here to celebrate or to tell me that it's about damn time? It was a long time coming."

[maxmoffs]

“ and so there she was , scarlet orbs connect to palms that beamed red hues connecting as one . indulged by her powers , as if she had sunk into the depths of her own destiny , to become THE ULTIMATE BEING. THE SCARLET WITCH . ” quote by yours truly, ellie ♥️ *click the links!*

mutuals exclusive . wanda maximoff . heavily headcanoned interpretation . strong character voice and preference from the comics / very heavily re-written refs from mcu only when prompted / mcu muses are welcome here / iconless writing / moderately active / written by ellie! she + her . 26 . australia . / re-est. 2024 / multi - verse , fandom & oc friendly + encouraged .

PLEASE START HERE !

PLEASE REMEMBER TO READ MY HEADCANONS !! ACCESS RULES. HCS. PROMPTS. VERSES. BELOW.

001 . 002. 003. PINTEREST. MULTI. PERMANENT STARTER CALL HERE !

( BLOGROLL ) please write with current high and best active muses: wicked, squid game, aot on the multi & gilho!

more muses on multimuse sideblog on ( @arden1ly ) yoon gilho. gangnam b-side, fandomless ( @rvengance ) kang cheonsa squid game original character. ( @088player ) billy maximoff . private + low activity ( @w1ccn )

[ this custom artwork is gifted by @jgoldberg ]

( MAINS )

ft . agatha. marcus. kol. nausicaä. kai. magneto. tony.

blogwide : @gravdefy 💗 @mult1aes 💗 @espres0s 💗 @alcrescendo 💗 @lightcreators 💗 @mcntra 💗 @behmth

not sure how mains + affiliates work but to keep it sum short on my end + version of it : these are amazing friends, writing partners that I’ve closely plotted with + been a constant , meaning just a lot more endless , unplanned interactions both ic and ooc from me ♥️ i am very open to and not limited to adding / but would love to create deeper and constant connections whether that be just ic for wanda if you enjoy writing with her or both with ooc. please don’t hesitate to message me to plot or consider being mains !

d.iscord drop : arden1ly ! always available for MUTUALS ONLY . for plotting or ooc chats ! just pls mssg me who you are once you have requested! please do remember that i am slow , and my activity for any chats for ooc or plotting via discord or dms will vary from my mood , energy and time . this is not personal , i just have a messy life schedule lol , but i appreciate your patience and kindness through it <3

( psd used on my banners provided by @underesources . with public approval of use per credit mention. so very grateful. )

[andrewuttaro]

New Look Sabres: GM 52 - MIN - Savior Sam

The Buffalo Sabres have given us all the bait and switch… or at least that’s how it felt for a while now, certainly since the Blackhawks game. That game broke me. I couldn’t pretend anymore that the Sabres are a third place club just waiting to get back on a good stretch and make the playoffs. My confidence in the coaching, management and playoff prospects were all shaken. This team hasn’t looked good for a while but that was just embarrassing. For six years this team has been uncompetitive trash and that loss reaffirmed that in spite of early season hope it probably still is. Over the weekend as the Superbowl bored us all to tears I refreshed twitter hoping for anything to make being a Sabres fan right now not feel like garbage. Jason Botterill is a regular Dumbledore at this point: selectively being a master wizard between large stretches of being grossly negligent. Phil Housley has gotten to the point with most of us where his presence behind the bench makes us shutter in fear at that thought we’re becoming the Oilers organization just full of team alums and worse off for it. Hell, looking at the roster right now there’s few people I don’t hate a little bit. Then Monday came and the organization finally signaled some changes. With Remi Elie clearing waivers the spot opened up for the call-up of C.J. Smith that, with all due respect to the Amerks, I want to be a full-time Sabre now. That move was followed by a practice yesterday where the blender that was taken to the lineup had to be industrial strength. No forward line or defensive pairing was left untouched: even Eichel and Skinner were split up! Eichel now centers a top line of Conor Sheary and Kyle Okposo while Skinner rides Mittelstadt’s wing across from Jason Pominville. The third line was Evan Rodrigues centering C.J. Smith and Sam Reinhart which has potential to be fun. At this point I’m ready to try just about anything to spark a team half as fun as this one was in November. It may be Housley’s last chance to save this season with only 31 games left. Our last matchup against this Minnesota team was in the midst of the win streak and the Sabres came back from a 2-0 deficit to win 3-2 in regulation. Capturing any of that would be great for a current Buffalo team needing wins now to stay in the playoff race.

One of the changes in practice yesterday was booting Ristolainen off the 1st Powerplay unit to create the absolute unit of Eichel, Dahlin, Skinner, Mittelstadt, and Reinhart. As nice as that looked the 2nd powerplay unit that Ristolainen got bumped down to with Rodrigues, Sheary, Okposo and Thompson broke the ice tonight. Evan Rodrigues got the puck along the blueline in the O-Zone from Ristolainen before launching a laser pass Devan Dubnyk. The Sabres looked strong in this first period which means of course I was not able to watch. It wasn’t until later in the first frame when Minnesota began getting their shots and pushing back. It was an unfortunate deflection off of Linus Ullmark’s own stick that gave Jared Spurgeon the Wild’s first goal of the game 6:29 into the second. Then the Sabres responded. Yes, like they had been reading our frustration that sneaky good third line raced the visitors into their own zone and Sam Reinhart shot the puck to CJ Smith who tapped it in the open net. The play wouldn’t have happened if Evan Rodrigues isn’t straddling the blueline preserving the play. A couple minutes later Jonas Brodin slashed Reinhart on a wicked breakaway and sent the Sabres on another powerplay opportunity. The powerplay resurrection continued and Rasmus Dahlin pounded one past Dubnyk all by himself in the slot. The Sabres were now up 3-1 having scored as many powerplay goals in one game that they had in the prior eleven games combined. With a humming powerplay the Sabres needed to identify themselves to us and Jared Spurgeon got his second of the game before future Sabres Charlie Coyle got Minnesota even at 3. The Minnesota counterattack was rooted in simply being tough on the boards and protecting the puck: a method Buffalo has not been great at any point this season. The third period would have to be the moment of truth.

At this point Phil Housley couldn’t help himself. It was really a must-win situation and old habits sometimes come back to roost. Remember all those super-blender line combinations I started off tonight talking about? The forward lines at least were jumbled up again as we go into the third. Jason Pominville was on a top line with Skinner and Eichel, the Wild were checking and the boys got mouthy. It started with Jeff Skinner and old pal Marry Me Marcus Foligno sharing words and almost knuckles at the faceoff line. There was a botched non-call on the Wild for interference and the Sabres bench exploded in protest. The ring leader: Shit Talking Skinner making Rob Ray learn all the new mean words the kids say these days. The play on the ice got chippy too but through the chaos Sam Reinhart decided it was time to save the Sabres. Jake McCabe streaked in and fed Sam the puck in his Sam spot almost in the crease. Reino sent the slapper home. Jack Eichel got the puck into the zone and kept it there long enough to produce the play that made it 4-3 Sabres. Buffalo took over for a while as the final frame went on. Rasmus Dahlin was unreal at several moments in this third nearly making 5-3. I’ve never seen dekes like his and if all else fails: holy hell the savory swede is a Sabre. Linus Ullmark stood on his head but it was Zach Parise’s skate that redirected the puck to a place Ullmark was not prepared for. The puck hardly crossed the line but it did. That made it 4-4 for with a shade over a minute in regulation and the last four minutes of that period was so intense you thought maybe the Sabres could end it in still. It was overtime and a very pressurized one at that. Minnesota out shot and out possessed Buffalo in the 3-on-3 period and for every near miss tap ins there were for the home team the visitors got two. It helped that the refs missed every possible call that could’ve gone the home team’s way but I’ve never been one to rail against the refs. This one needed a shootout to see if it could completely stop my heart.

Honestly, I’ve relished Ullmark’s opportunities to show off in the shootout. If it wasn’t in such a rough stretch I would enjoy it even more. Victor Rask, having benefited from half a dozen non-calls over the course of the game lost the puck before he got the shot off on his shootout attempt so that felt good. It was Sam Reinhart who got Buffalo ahead and snuck it past Dubnyk on the third Sabres attempt. Sam the Savior’s tally held up on the ensuing Ullmark save on Parise and Buffalo wins 5-4. The win was dampened by an apparent Ullmark injury on the save and the team not exactly inspiring optimism of late but Ullmark looked ok in postgame interviews and this is two points in the standings. He really needs to be the starter now but I’ll wait for the deployment choice on Thursday to rant and rave about that. Carolina won tonight so that’s no ground gained on them. As of posting this the Blue Jackets are tied with the Avalanche in the second period of that tilt so the real impact in the standings is yet to be seen. If I’m being entirely honest: I need a win on Thursday to emerge from this fatalistic funk I’m in with this team. I built this blog on looking at them with a new set of eyes but they’ve made it really hard to do that. If Thursday is a W it’s the first two straight wins since the middle of December. Yikes.

Just like Sam saved the Sabres this blog provides plenty of fun anecdotes and alliterations on the regular so you should share it like it and leave a comment of your favorite Sabres pun. If you don’t laugh you’ll cry right? Prayers for Linus Ullmark, he was God to Reinhart’s Jesus tonight and I’m not apologizing for that comparison. I need some real hope. Give me hope. Give me something Sabres Calvary. I’m going to try to not utter Phil Housley’s name from here to Thursday. Wish me luck. Let’s go Sabres!

Thanks for reading.

P.S. Let me repeat: if he’s ok, Linus Ullmark needs to be the starter now. I’m talking to you, Phil. That’s the last time I say your name until you make the correct choice on Thursday.

[fik-plaster]

Ruszył nabór do 9. edycji projektu Szkoła Teledysków, w ramach którego filmowcy stworzą teledyski dla znanych artystów. W tym roku powstaną klipy dla Bass Astral x Igo, Mery Spolsky oraz rapera Moliego.

Na zgłoszenia czekamy tylko do 16 września! 

Dla kogo?

Do tego twórczego szaleństwa szukamy filmowców i filmowczyń wszystkich specjalności: reżyserów, scenarzystów, scenografów, operatorów, kierowników produkcji, ale również tych, którzy widzą się na planie filmu, reklamy albo teledysku. Szukamy osób, które już działają na rynku albo dopiero zaczynają swoją przygodę. Do udziału w projekcie zapraszamy tylko osoby pełnoletnie. 

Na czym polega projekt? 

36 wybranych uczestników i uczestniczek weźmie udział w serii wykładów poświęconych różnym zagadnieniom i etapom tworzenia wideoklipów.

W rolę wykładowców wejdą czołowi twórcy polskich teledysków, m.in. Grajper oraz Filip Załuska. Podstawą dobrego teledysku jest scenariusz, o którym opowie script coach Agnieszka Kruk ze StoryLab.pro, natomiast tajniki produkcji zdradzi producentka Alicja Jagodzińska. Łącznie szykujemy 18 godzin wykładów. 

Równolegle do wykładów uczestnicy podzieleni na trzy 12-osobowe ekipy filmowe będą pracować na teledyskami dla artystów, którzy podjęli rękawicę i udostępnili nam swoje utwory. Opiekę artystyczną nad projektami będą sprawować doświadczeni mentorzy i filmowcy: Roman Przylipiak, Agnieszka Gomułka oraz Piotrek Matejkowski. 

Po dwóch weekendowych zjazdach (pt.-ndz.) uczestnicy i uczestniczki przystąpią do realizacji zdjęć i postprodukcji. Wcześniej scenariusze zaakceptują zaproszeni do projektu artyści. Do dyspozycji uczestnicy otrzymają dostęp do sprzętu filmowego oraz budżet produkcyjny. Partnerami w tym roku są: Heliograf, Panda Films i Film Produkcja. Resztę muszą wykonać sami. Premiery teledysków odbędą się podczas gali w Domu Kultury Kadr w listopadzie. Potem wideoklipy trafią na oficjalne kanały artystów.

Projekt będzie realizowany w zgodzie z aktualnymi wytycznymi dotyczącymi organizacji wydarzeń kulturalnych w czasie pandemii.  

O nas:

Szkoła Teledysków organizowana jest od 2008 roku. Do tej pory w ramach 8 edycji powstało ponad 20 teledysków. Wśród wykonawców, dla których zrealizowano klipy, znaleźli się m.in:  Vienio, Bovska, Solar Białas, Sonar, Sound and Grace, Sorry Boys, Bedoes.  Projekt współfinansowany jest przez miasto stołeczne Warszawa. 

Prace uczestników poprzednich edycji można obejrzeć tutaj:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLbOo32GSSjiDWpPCD5ROxOaAuV19NyS9d

Jak się zgłosić: 

Aby się zgłosić, należy wypełnić przygotowany przez nas formularz https://tiny.pl/7jm4w.

Ważne info:

Na zgłoszenia, czyli wypełniony formularz czekamy do 16 września do godz. 23:59 (zanim karoca zamieni się w dynię).

O  wynikach rekrutacji poinformujemy wszystkich mejlowo do 18 września do godz. 20:00.

Koszt udziału w projekcie wynosi 280 zł, płatne po zakwalifikowaniu się przed rozpoczęciem działań.

Zajęcia odbędą się w Domu Kultury Kadr w Warszawie (ul. Rzymowskiego 32) w dwóch zjazdach: 25-27.09 oraz 2-4.10. Po tym terminie ustalane będą terminy zdjęć dla każdej z trzech produkcji.

Regulamin wydarzenia dostępny jest tutaj: https://tiny.pl/7ppp1.    

Dane kontaktowe

Wszelkie informacje o projekcie można uzyskać u koordynatora projektu: wojtek@fundacjaplaster.pl lub dzwoniąc na: 660 477 834. 

Making of edycji 2018: 

Plany zdjęciowe odbędą się między 9 a 25 października.

Premiera teledysków jest przewidziana na 11 listopada.

Kogo z branży posłuchacie?

Czekają na Was oczy i uszy specjalistów, czyli mentorzy: Agnieszka Gomułka, Piotr Matejkowski, Roman Przylipiak oraz wykładowcy: Agnieszka Kruk, Grajper, Filip Załuska, Alicja Jagodzińska, Ola Wodołowska, Joanna Cisowska, Igor Pająk.

Sylwetki mentorów

Agnieszka Gomułka: Reżyserka, producentka, montażystka, wykładowczyni. Absolwentka Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego oraz Akademii Filmu i Telewizji, gdzie ukończyła Wydział Reżyserii, a także Wydział Kierownictwa Produkcji. Przez kilka lat związana zawodowo z MTV POLSKA. Wykładowczyni. Realizuje filmy dokumentalne, fabularne, teledyski i reportaże. Jej krótkometrażowy film „Szczęściarze” był zakwalifikowany do Konkursu Kina Niezależnego 31. FPFF w Gdyni 2006 r. Od 2009 r. członkini Stowarzyszenia Filmowców Polskich w Sekcji Filmu Dokumentalnego. Jej największą pasją jest film dokumentalny. Agnieszka współpracuje ze Szkołą Teledysków od początku jej istnienia. Do tej pory była opiekunk�� artystyczną grup realizujących obrazy do utworów hip-hopowych takich artystów jak Bedoes czy Vienio. 

Piotrek Matejkowski: Reżyser krótkich form filmowych, wizualnie wysmakowanych reklam dla Nike, McDonald’s, Desperados, Lech Premium Beer, Apple,  Reserved, Puma, Adidas i teledysków dla debiutujących, a także znanych artystów. Piotr jest również filmowcem-podróżnikiem. Dzięki swojej kreatywności, pasji i ciekawości kręcił filmy w Rio de Janeiro, Hawany, Bangkoku, Hiszpanii, Francji, Anglii i USA. Chce opowiadać zapadające w pamięć, prawdziwe historie, sprawnie poruszając się w różnych gatunkach. Jego filmy otrzymały wiele nominacji i nagród m. in. na Los Angeles Cinefest, Berlin Music Video Awards, Bucharest Short Cut CIneFest, KTR Awards. Piotr jest zdobywcą nagrody Grand Prix podczas I edycji PL Music Video Awards za teledysk Flary zespołu PRO3L8M.

Roman Przylipiak: Absolwent PWSFTviT w Łodzi oraz Mistrzowskiej Szkoły Andrzeja Wajdy. Tworzy fabuły, teledyski i reklamy. Jest autorem klipów dla: Maryli Rodowicz, JohnA Mitko, Ani Wyszkoni, Artura Andrusa, Roberta M oraz zespołów: Me and that Man, Feel, Lady Pank, UL/KR, Das moon, Plastic, Beneficjenci Splendoru. Reżyseruje także wizualizacje do spektakli teatralnych. Jest laureatem wielu nagród i wyróżnień za filmy fabularne (m.in. Za film „Jerry” Najlepsza Rezyseria na Open Place Film Festival, Łotwa, Najlepszy film na Kamera Akcja Festival w Łodzi, Najlepszy Film Krótkometrażowy CIFA Film Festival, Chile i teledyski (na Aesthetica Film Festival / York, Anglia, Festival Cinematográfixo de Mérida, Meksyk 2019 Yach Film Festival / Polska). Wykłada podstawy reżyserii na Uniwersytecie Gdańskim. 

Sylwetki artystów, dla których powstaną teledyski

[źródło: http://kayax.pl/artysta/mery-sposky/] Mery Spolsky: „Mery Spolsky pisze teksty, zamienia je w piosenki i prowokuje... głównie do myślenia. Jej słowa są szczere, ubrane w mocne elektro-techno brzmienia i piosenkowe melodie. W zasadzie większość rzeczy robi sama, bo chce, żeby wszystko co robi miało etykietkę »spolsky« – projektuje scenografię, grafiki oraz stroje, produkuje i komponuje. Od debiutanckiego albumu towarzyszy jej »krzyż spolsky«, który niesie pomoc zagubionym sercom. Kolejnym znakiem rozpoznawczym są »pasky«, bo jak twierdzi, kolor czarny odzwierciedla jej czarny humor, a biały podkreśla białe wiersze. Artystka przyznaje się do inspiracji szaloną twórczością Salvadora Dalego, czerpie z motywu pasków Grzegorza Ciechowskiego i nurza się w abstrakcjach Die Antwoord. [...]. W 2017 roku wydała debiutancką płytę pt. »Miło Było Pana Poznać« pod szyldem wytwórni Kayax. Kilka miesięcy później tytułowy singiel wygrał plebiscyt na najlepszy utwór roku w Radiu Kampus. Debiut artystki został nominowany do nagrody Fryderyk 2018 w kategoriach: Fonograficzny Debiut Roku oraz Album Roku Elektronika” (źródło: https://www.facebook.com/pg/meryspolsky/about/?ref=page_internal).

[źródło: https://iglorecords.com/]

Bass Astral x Igo: „Duet Bass Astral x Igo tworzą producent Kuba Tracz i wokalista Igor Walaszek. Obaj swoje pierwsze kroki na muzycznej scenie stawiali w rockowym zespole Clock Machine. Dzięki temu, że nie mieli wcześniej do czynienia z muzyką elektroniczną, wnoszą do niej zupełnie nowe rozwiązania, dalekie od mód i trendów panujących w tej stylistyce. Ich koncerty to pełne tańca i improwizacji live acty, które oszałamiają publiczność w Polsce i zagranicą. Duet ma na koncie dwa długogrające albumy. W marcu w 2017 roku muzycy wyruszyli w trasę, by promować ostatni z nich – »Orell«. Płyta zrobiła sporo zamieszania na rynku muzycznym, co poskutkowało całkowicie wyprzedaną wiosenną trasą koncertową w 2018 r.” (źródło: https://iglorecords.com/). Ich najnowszy projekt to „Satellite”.

fot. Piotr Pytel

Moli: Moli, a właściwie Adam Koźmiński urodził się w 1994 roku w Inowrocławiu, a trochę ponad rok temu podpisał swój kontrakt z SBM Label. Szerszej publiczności dał się poznać dzięki drugiej edycji akcji SBM Starter w 2018 roku, zaprezentował wtedy bardzo dobrze przyjęty utwór „Versus”. Moli dysponuje charakterystycznym głosem oraz flow, które wyróżniają go na tle innych debiutujących raperów. Wśród jego największych inspiracji znajdziemy m.in. Drake’a, Travisa Scotta oraz The Weekend. Utwory artysty cechuje prawdziwość oraz brak autocenzury, które nadają im niesamowity wydźwięk oraz mogą przyprawić o ciarki niejednego słuchacza. Podczas swojego #hot16challenge2, Moli po raz pierwszy ogłosił szerszej publice, że na co dzień jest żołnierzem i w takim też klimacie utrzymał też swój debiutancki singiel „Pąki białych róż”, na którym opowiada właśnie o swoich początkach w wojsku. Na chwilę obecną Moli pracuje nad swoją pierwszą płytą pod szyldem warszawskiej wytwórni.  

[junker-town]

The 9 dumbest mistakes from a messy NFL Week 4, ranked

Photo by Justin Casterline/Getty Images

Vontaze Burfict hasn’t changed, the Cowboys threw into quadruple coverage, and the Chiefs and Lions fumbled their way into our hearts.

It’s really hard to pick games in the NFL. And no, we’re not just saying that because this week, our entire panel got beaten by a (very good) dog. There are few guarantees in a league so parity-driven that after four weeks, 13 teams are sitting at 2-2.

Even the slam-dunk predictions— the Patriots and Chiefs will win; the Dolphins really, really won’t — looked dicey for most of Sunday. Well, in the Dolphins’ case, for three minutes and 47 seconds. Progress, anyway.

Week 4 ended up being especially difficult to figure out. On Sunday, road teams went 10-3, including upsets like the Bucs over the Rams, the Browns over the Ravens, and the Raiders over the Colts. Almost all the games had a face only a mother could love, too. Jared Goff, Josh Allen, and Dwayne Haskins all threw three interceptions each. Tom Brady and Patrick Mahomes failed to score a touchdown. The Saints and Cowboys somehow combined to score fewer points than their 13-10 slugfest last season.

We’ve seen better football than we got on Sunday, but at least that unpredictability gives us a wide array of choices for this week’s edition of dumbest mistakes:

9. The Chiefs and Lions played a game of fumble chicken

Strangely, the most exciting game of the day was a back-and-forth battle in Detroit between the undefeated Chiefs and the technically undefeated (at the time) Lions.

The Lions jumped out to an early lead, but the Chiefs came back to tie the game 13-all heading into overtime. Apparently both teams sat in their locker room soaking in giant tubs of butter, because this is how the first six drives of the second half went:

watching football pic.twitter.com/YRAKRu2YXZ

— Jon Bois (@jon_bois) September 29, 2019

Yes, the Lions and Chiefs totaled five lost fumbles IN ONE QUARTER. It’s so ugly, it’s almost beautiful, like Detroit itself in about a month and half when the slush starts coming.

The Chiefs scoring on a fumble recovery — and the refs not blowing their whistles too early like it was a Saints game — ended being the difference in a 34-30 win for the visitors.

8. What was Josh Rosen looking at on his interception?

It must be a nightmare being the Dolphins quarterback. Rosen has to deal with drops and horrible blocking, and even when he has an excellent start to a game like he did in Week 4, it’s just not nearly enough.

Rosen could help himself by avoiding horrible plays, though. The interception he threw to Chargers cornerback Michael Davis was so bad it was confusing.

first career pick ✊ pic.twitter.com/INAa3IIig4

— Los Angeles Chargers (@Chargers) September 29, 2019

Did Rosen just not see Davis? That’s usually the explanation for such an egregious mistake, but it sure looks like Rosen takes a long look that direction then decides “Screw it, I can make that throw.” And even if Davis weren’t there, the throw was so late that Dolphins receiver Preston Williams wouldn’t have had a chance at staying in bounds.

At this point, the 2019 season is just an audition for Rosen to prove to the Dolphins (or maybe another team) that he has franchise quarterback potential. Those kind of throws aren’t going to look good on his reel.

7. Dak Prescott threw into quadruple coverage

Amari Cooper is the most dangerous receiver on the Cowboys’ roster. The Saints knew this, which is why they sent four defensive backs to cover Cooper as Dallas ran its two-minute drill in the fourth quarter trailing 12-10. Dak Prescott knew this, which is why he threw the ball to Cooper anyway.

The end result was ... familiar to Lakers fans:

pic.twitter.com/bBCMpptyMp

— Hector Diaz (@iamHectorDiaz) September 30, 2019

Cooper actually had a better shot at hauling in the pass than anyone could have imagined, but it still fell to the turf. Three plays later, an improbable comeback effort ended with a Marcus Williams interception of Prescott’s last-ditch Hail Mary, handing the Cowboys their first loss of the season.

6. Tom Brady threw a pass that could never have been anything other than an interception

Tom Brady’s career has been predicated on good decisions. Finding the right windows downfield. Choosing the right workout regimen to keep him chugging along at age 42. Deciding which foods not to eat (see you in hell, strawberries!).

But every now and then — way too often in the Super Bowl, if we’re being honest — Brady sees ghosts in the red zone and throws at them, making an entirely indefensible decision in the process. This was one of those times:

Brady unleashed a classic "0% chance of success" pass to Micah Hyde, who plays for the Bills pic.twitter.com/OkiQbv2QI6

— Christian D'Andrea (@TrainIsland) September 29, 2019

The Bills took the ensuing possession 52 yards to kick a field goal seconds before the two-minute warning — in effect doubling the amount of points the Patriots’ defense had given up in 2019. He finished his day with just 150 passing yards and zero touchdowns, leading to a 45.9 passer rating. Statistically, he’s never been worse in a New England victory.

5. The Titans passed on an easy chance for a three-score lead

Generally speaking, NFL head coaches are painfully conservative and risk-averse. Titans head coach Mike Vrabel earned a spot on this list for the exact opposite reason, however.

Tennessee was up 24-10 early in the fourth quarter and in the red zone threatening to add to that lead. A touchdown would’ve been great, but even a field goal would’ve saddled the Falcons with a 17-point deficit.

So why did Vrabel think it was a good idea to go for a fourth down on the Falcons’ 10-yard line? The Titans were already 0-for-2 on fourth down tries in 2019 and failed to convert their third attempt too.

Big stop by the defense on 4th-and-1! pic.twitter.com/LANJ52xFtx

— Atlanta Falcons (@AtlantaFalcons) September 29, 2019

The field goal would’ve been a 27-yard attempt for Cairo Santos, who already drilled a 45-yarder earlier in the game. Luckily for the Titans, the recklessly aggressive fourth-down call didn’t come back to haunt them, because the Falcons’ subsequent drive fizzled in Titans territory.

4. The Bills had no choice but to take a delay of game penalty (and hooo boy did it cost them)

Buffalo was in excellent shape to hold the Patriots’ feet to the fire. New England hadn’t trailed at all in 2019 when the Bills charged deep into its red zone trailing 16-10. A touchdown would give Buffalo and backup quarterback Matt Barkley a fourth-quarter lead and some very real momentum in front of a raucous home crowd.

Barkley didn’t like what he saw when he stepped behind center on second-and-goal, but by the time he finished talking it over with tight end Dawson Knox, there was nothing he could do. With his team having burned all its timeouts in the third quarter, the veteran QB could only walk from the line of scrimmage and accept a five-yard loss.

defeated Matt Barkley realizing he has no choice but to accept an impending delay of game penalty because his team used all its timeouts in the 3rd quarter is extremely relatable pic.twitter.com/tOmagNGqF2

— Christian D'Andrea (@TrainIsland) September 29, 2019

Barkley’s next play would drive Buffalo all the way down to the Pats’ 2-yard line — deep enough to have been a touchdown without the previous penalty. Frank Gore was stuffed on third-and-goal, and then the Bills’ fourth-down pass from an empty backfield fell incomplete. Buffalo wouldn’t get this close to the end zone again in Week 4, falling to 3-1 and handing the Patriots their third AFC East victory of 2019.

3. The Vikings’ timeout ended up gifting the Bears a first down

The Bears were up 7-0 in the second quarter when they faced a decision on fourth-and-3 from Minnesota’s 34. At first, it looked like they were going to try for a field goal before then sending out punter Pat O’Donnell late into the play clock. Chicago was about to just take the delay of game penalty, until Vikings coach Mike Zimmer called a timeout.

While it looks like the Vikings did have 12 men on the field, the Bears were ready to give O’Donnell the extra room to punt:

After getting a little more time to think about it thanks to Zimmer, the Bears opted to go for it on fourth down — and they converted. Even worse, Chicago got a field goal on the drive to go up 10-0 before halftime.

Zimmer took the blame after the game, saying, “That’s a bad mistake. That’s my fault,” as the Vikings fell to the bottom of the NFC North standings.

2. Bill O’Brien couldn’t get out of the Texans’ way

The Texans had the perfect opportunity to take over sole possession of first place in the AFC South. They were hosting the Panthers, who were trotting out Kyle Allen at quarterback for the second week in a row. Despite coming into the game 2-0 as a starter, Allen also hadn’t faced a defense as disruptive as the Texans’ before.

After Allen’s second of three fumbles, the Texans got the ball at their own 34-yard line in a 3-3 game. Deshaun Watson picked up two first downs in a row before a Carlos Hyde run set them up with second-and-4 at Carolina’s 18-yard line. The home team had all the momentum at that point — until, that is, Bill O’Brien decided to dial up a little trickeration.

It did not work.

This just happened. Ross Cockrell intercepts DeAndre Hopkins #KeepPounding pic.twitter.com/H8yHvAvRBY

— Carolina Panthers (@Panthers) September 29, 2019

DeAndre Hopkins is without question an elite wide receiver. He is not a great passer, though. That was the second time he has attempted a pass; the first time, last year against the Bills, was an incompletion. And it prepared Ron Rivera and the Panthers to be on the lookout for it:

Ron Rivera said his defense was ready for the Hopkins pass. He said they saw it on tape during the week. Ross Cockrell said they knew Hopkins and Stills were threats to throw.

— SportsRadio 610 (@SportsRadio610) September 29, 2019

The Panthers went down the field and scored a touchdown to go up 10-3. After the game, O’Brien admitted it as a bad call. It was also arguably the turning point in the game.

Even so, the Texans were still in it late. The problem was O’Brien had used up all three timeouts with more than four minutes to go. One of those was lost on a challenge he obviously wasn’t going to win: this Christian McCaffrey superhuman play (O’Brien wasn’t sure if he was challenging the catch or the spot.)

That meant they couldn’t stop the clock when the Panthers were driving down the field for a late field goal to go up 16-10. They also couldn’t stop the clock when they had a chance at a game-winning drive. With 28 seconds left, Watson was able to get them to midfield to set up a Hail Mary attempt in the end zone. It, too, did not work.

At least Hopkins didn’t throw it, we guess.

1. Vontaze Burfict continues to make dirty plays and laugh them off

Remember only a couple weeks ago when Antonio Brown was being calmed down by Vontaze Burfict, of all people? We probably should have seen Burfict being the voice of reason as a sign of the end times, but it didn’t last. Burfict is back on his bullshit.

KICK VONTAZE BURFICT OUT FOREVER!!! pic.twitter.com/91IQghasuf

— Warren Sharp (@SharpFootball) September 29, 2019

Burfict has a long history of dirty hits and subsequent punishments by the NFL — more than $4.2 million in career fines and 10 games of suspension, per Spotrac. At this point, it’s a wonder why someone who cares so little about the health of his fellow players is still even in the league.

After laying that blatantly vicious hit against the Colts tight end Jack Doyle, Burfict was ejected and once again handled it with the same nonchalance as usual: he was smiling and blowing kisses to the stands as he went to the tunnel. If this isn’t at least a suspension, the NFL has some serious explaining to do.

[jodyedgarus]

Which NBA Team Is Wronged By The Refs The Most?

The relationship between NBA players and referees has arguably never been more strained than it is right now.

In January, Golden State forward Draymond Green — who is never shy about complaining and already has a league-high 14 technical fouls — said that too many refs carry personal vendettas against players and that the NBA should consider replacing its entire crop of referees. Kevin Durant, who is Green’s teammate and started the season with one ejection in his entire 10-year career, leads the NBA this year, with four early exits. And this week, Paul George and LeBron James have both outlined what they perceive to be biases in how games are officiated.1

When the NBA’s biggest names are complaining about something, it’s obviously going to get a lot of attention. But that doesn’t necessarily mean those voices have the biggest reason to complain. That honor belongs to the Brooklyn Nets. As of the All-Star break, Brooklyn had seen more blown foul calls than any other club, according to our analysis of The Pudding’s compilation of the NBA’s “Last Two Minute” reports. In those, the league evaluates the accuracy of calls and non-calls made by officials at the end of close games.2

As of the All-Star break, the Nets had been disadvantaged by an official’s incorrect call or incorrect non-call 29 times this season. In second place is Dallas, with 24.

To get a sense of the sorts of plays that have hurt the Nets, watch the clips below, which highlight several sequences that the league later determined should have drawn whistles in Brooklyn’s favor. One involves Nets swingman Allen Crabbe, who managed to score a tough bucket despite being bumped by one defender and being fallen upon by another at the conclusion of the play. Two other examples show forward DeMarre Carroll being bumped or swiped across the arm while trying to get a shot off during the last 20 seconds of play. After many of the plays, you can see Brooklyn players turn to officials in disbelief over the fact that no foul was called.

https://espnfivethirtyeight.files.wordpress.com/2018/03/netsfouls.mp4

There are a handful of interesting takeaways from this data. For starters, it seems to provide evidence to support comments made by Brooklyn guard Spencer Dinwiddie in January suggesting that this young Nets team gets less respect from officials than other clubs.

“To see the same type of respect not reciprocated is very frustrating for us,” Dinwiddie said after the Nets fell 87-85 to the Boston Celtics. “The other thing that’s very frustrating as well: We have these meetings as teams, or with [the players’ association], about respect, so we want to treat everybody with respect, right? Because everybody’s doing their job, and they’re trying their best, including us, [even if] we turn the ball over or calls are missed or whatever it is. But when you approach somebody, and they shush you or they wave you off like you’re not a man, or something of that nature, that’s also very frustrating.”

On an individual level, Dinwiddie’s frustration may be justified. The 10 blown calls that left him disadvantaged led the league as of the All-Star break — a very high number for that point in the campaign, considering that no player in the league’s database has ever been the victim of more than 11 blown calls in a single year since the NBA first began publishing these reports during the 2014-15 season. (The National Basketball Referees Association, which has long pushed for an end to the public reports, recently called them “pointless.” The union argues that publishing the corrections, which ultimately have no impact on the standings, only creates more division, despite the transparency that the NBA is aiming for.)

These players have the most legitimate complaints

The NBA players who had the most blown calls against them (incorrect calls and incorrect non-calls) in the last two minutes of 2017-18 games when the score was within 3 points, through the All-Star break

Player Bad Calls Bad Non-Calls Total 1 Spencer Dinwiddie 0 10 10

–

2 Will Barton 2 6 8

–

3 LeBron James 0 6 6

–

3 Marcus Smart 1 5 6

–

3 Kristaps Porzingis 0 6 6

–

6 DeMar DeRozan 0 5 5

–

6 Kemba Walker 0 5 5

–

6 Damian Lillard 3 2 5

–

6 Josh Richardson 1 4 5

–

6 Caris LeVert 1 4 5

–

6 Dennis Smith Jr. 0 5 5

–

Sources: NBA ‘Last Two Minute’ Reports, The Pudding

In the Jan. 23 Nets-Thunder game, according to the report, Dinwiddie was disadvantaged twice — smacked on offense (with no call) and then bulldozed on defense (also with no call) — within a two-second span during the final 10 seconds. By swallowing the whistle both times, the officials likely sealed a loss for the Nets — in particular, the second non-call would have triggered an offensive foul on George, which would have kept Russell Westbrook from making a game-winning basket seconds later. (Worth noting: Going back to the 2014-15 season, we found that incorrect non-calls occur nearly seven times more frequently than incorrect calls, suggesting that referees would rather risk missing a call than calling a phantom foul that ends up deciding a game.)

Said Dinwiddie of the play: “It’s like, that’s Russell Westbrook and Paul George … and I’m Spencer Dinwiddie.”

https://espnfivethirtyeight.files.wordpress.com/2018/02/pgdinwiddie.mp4

Whether it’s a respect issue or just a mere coincidence, four of the five NBA teams that have seen the most blown calls this season — Brooklyn, Dallas, Atlanta and Chicago — each lack a bona-fide, go-to star in the most traditional sense. None possesses a 20-point-per-game scorer, perhaps making it tougher for officials to anticipate who’d be most likely to draw a foul in a given situation.

While Brooklyn has almost certainly dropped at least a game or two as a result of these missed calls — this ultimately benefits the Cavs, since the Nets don’t own their first-round pick anyway — some additional details around this subject are helpful in understanding the full picture here.

First off: The Nets have played a relatively large number of games that went down to the wire, meaning that officials may have been forced to make more decisions — both correct and incorrect ones — in situations involving Brooklyn than with most otand then her teams. The Nets have the third-highest of rate of incorrect calls against them this season, at 10 percent — meaning that 10 percent of all possible calls in the Last Two Minute reports that could have gone against them did. That’s a high number, but not astronomically so compared with the leaguewide average of 6.9 percent this season.

Another detail that suggests officiating equity: That a team as awful as Orlando — in contention for the top overall draft pick — has the lowest blown-call rate in the league (3.6 percent) is a relatively strong counterexample to the notion that a team needs a star to get late-game calls to go its way.

Taking the opposite approach from Dinwiddie, Carroll said he wanted his teammates to stop focusing so much on how the games were being officiated.

“Hollering at the refs, screaming at them — that isn’t going to do us justice,” said Carroll, who was grabbed on the wrist while going up for a shot in the closing seconds of an overtime loss to New Orleans but got no call. “They’re human just like we are, so at the end of the day, we’ve got to try something different, maybe. Hopefully it works.”

from News About Sports https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/which-nba-team-is-wronged-by-the-refs-the-most/

[royalvampireandwolves]

(open blood bowl rp Starter) 

*your muses/ocs watch blood bowl game going on with blackburn brothers and crowd see blood bowl player stomp on other player on ground as ref send him off field while brothers and crowd are booing*  Marcus: do guys saw that!? Kowalski: yes we did big bro it outrage! >:(  Sergai: i know stomp on player head so dam....  Shock: that not what marcus was talking about sergai i cant believe the ref send someone off! >:( 

[writermuses]

Open to: Anyone (mun/muse/fc must be 21+) Plot: A little pre-Sprint Race flirting with your muse interviewing him on the grid. Muse: Marcus De Vrise, 22, is a hearing but non-verbal F1 driver for McLaren. He uses ASL and his brother or another member of the team will voice for him.

"I'm really happy with how the car was running in the quali and I'm looking forward to the sprint. It's great to be near the front and to do better than my teammate who has been having a great season. Miami has been a great time so far and I'm looking to have a good time on track and off afterwards, whatever the outcome. Any suggestions?" He smirked, the implication that he was clearly eager to get some more time with them.

[writermuses]

[writermuses]

Open to: Anyone (Mun/Muse/FC must all be 21+) Plot: Your muse was just fighting with someone at a house party, steps onto the balcony and finds my muse. They don't know each other, but it's obvious he was being nosy. Muse: Marcus De Vrise, 22, is an F1 driver. He’s also born into the McKenzie Motorcycle Club (MC) and the De Vrise Cartel. Due to childhood trauma he is nonverbal and communicates through ASL or text.

Parties were the last place Marcus wanted to be. More often than not, trouble had a way of finding his friends and he was the one left to get them out of it. Known for avoiding anything that could take away another one of his senses and being triggered by the physical touch of strangers had Mark sober and sitting on the balcony. With his back to the wall, he watched the street below and the people inside. Wrongfully thinking that no one would notice him out there, let alone join him, his pale green gaze studied one pair in particular. Cross armed and tense jaws, he knew they were fighting before they did. A few moments later and he could see the heads turning in their direction and then he parsed out the shouting from the music. Looking away as they parted in a stomp off he flinched at the sound of the balcony door opening. Mark hated this part, not just meeting new people, but scaring the shit out of them by not announcing himself. Rapping his knuckles on the arm of the arm of the chair he waited for their surprise to wear of before tapping his throat and shaking his head 'no'. Testing the waters on if they knew ASL, he signed, phone on his thigh at the ready if he needed to type. "You okay? That looked brutal."

[writermuses]

Open to: Anyone (mun/muse/fc must be 21+) Plot: Your muse has been harboring feelings for my muse, either their friends or in the same friend group, and yours wants to see where things go but quickly realizes he thought they meant something sexual, not a relationship. Think Six of Crows Kaz/Inej, "'I will have you without armor, Kaz Brekker. Or I will not have you at all.' Muse: Marcus De Vrise, 22, is an F1 driver. He’s also born into the McKenzie Motorcycle Club (MC) and the De Vrise Cartel. Due to childhood trauma he is nonverbal and communicates through ASL or text.

It wasn't uncommon for Hadrian to let friends crash at the townhouse and Mark's room was the only one on the top floor. Aside from his bathroom and bedroom there was nothing else up there and no reason for their friends to wander that way. Everyone knew Marcus didn't care for parties or crowds, but not everyone knew his story. Hades was particularly protective of his little brother, so the light tap on his door after he'd showered and climbed into bed had him raising an eyebrow. Seeing who it was had his heart racing for a different reason and he stood up, closing the distance between them quickly. Poking his head out the door to see they were alone before he closed it and tipped their chin up so he could meet their eyes. "You okay?" A 'hmph' of a grumble passed his lips as he looked them over. Most people thought that because he didn't talk that something was wrong with his vocal chords but he still groaned, moaned, grunted, and laughed- though the latter was rare. "You staying with me?"

[writermuses]

[flauntpage]

A Hollywood Moment – Ten Takeaways from Eagles 30, Rams 23

Turns out a healthy Nick Foles is better than an injured Carson Wentz.

Shocking, I know.

That should really be the extent of the “Foles vs. Wentz” argument that will stink up social media and sports radio this week. One guy is healthy, one guy is not. THEREFORE – at this current moment in time, I’m gonna roll with the healthy Super Bowl MVP. It seems pretty straightforward to me, but unfortunately we’re just gonna have to deal with the frothy nothing-burger quarrels for the next seven days.

I’ll tell ya what; that was the first Eagles game I enjoyed watching this year, at least for three quarters. They moved the ball up and down the field, they played aggressive and nasty defense, and I swear I saw glimpses of the 2017 squad out there.

This, of course, begs the question –

Where was this Eagles team against the Buccaneers, Titans, Vikings, Panthers, Cowboys, Saints, and Cowboys?

Surely the quarterback change was not the sole catalyst for the win, right? Nick Foles did play the first two games this season, and he wasn’t exactly Joe Montana against the Falcons or Bucs. The banged-up defense was lights out for 3+ quarters last night as guys like Avonte Maddox and Cre’Von LeBlanc made big plays. Did they miraculously transform into legitimate NFL starters overnight?

Gut feeling: the Eagles still believed in themselves while the Rams believed they were going to trash a 6-7 team in a rebound game coming off a bad loss. It’s the same underdog mentality that got the Birds a Super Bowl ring last year. “No one likes us, we don’t care” was the rallying cry then, but this year it’s more, “No one thinks we have a prayer, and we probably don’t, but we’re gonna at least go down swinging.” Maybe we can get that on a T-shirt.

I’ve been totally unenthusiastic about this team and actually mostly ambivalent over the past three or four weeks, so I won’t flip flop here and tell you how excited I am going forward. That would be the Skip Bayless thing to do, to just hop back on the bandwagon. I’m still skeptical that a banged-up Eagles team does much of anything in the playoffs, but at least they’ve given themselves a chance at 9-7 and a postseason return after slogging through a mostly miserable title defense in 2018.

1) Nick “The Franchise” Foles

He gets the ball out quicker than Carson does. That’s the big difference. Nick glides through his progressions and takes what the defense gives him. He’ll stand in the pocket and take a hit while Carson is more inclined to extend a play and try to make something happen in that fashion.

It’s not to say that Nick is better than Carson, because I don’t think he is. I think they are both pretty damn good when they’re on their game. Statistically, Foles finished 24 for 31 for 270 yards, zero touchdowns and an interception. last night and the Eagles’ offense was a meager 4-13 on third down. Wendell Smallwood and Josh Adams and Jake Elliott did the scoring.

The difference between healthy Foles and injured Carson is that healthy Foles was able to stay ahead of the chains with smart and simple plays on first and second down. He had first down conversions on 2nd and 10 and 2nd and 7 on first half scoring drives. He hit Golden Tate for 11 yards on a 2nd and 10 in the third quarter. There were only nine passing third down conversions last night, but Nick made them count and really did a nice job averting the dreaded three and out.

The only two horrendous passes I saw were the interception at the goal line and a risky screen that he probably should have thrown into the ground, but he was otherwise solid.

I wrote a story last week called “Throwing the Football Down the Field” and went through Carson’s last three game charts to find that he was 2-8 in completed passes of 20 or more yards against the Giants, Redskins, and Cowboys.

Last night, Nick was 3-5 in this category, all of which came down the right side of the field and took advantage of Alshon Jeffery’s ability to grab the ball in traffic:

That really was important, those deep shots. Carson was barely throwing those, and I wonder if the back injury was affecting his ability to step into those throws, or if the torque of the motion made those shots outside the hashmarks painful to even execute.

At the end of the day, Nick has one touchdown and two interceptions in three games this season. I don’t think he “won the game” for the Eagles last night, as some people are saying this morning, but he was steady last night, he kept the offense on the field, he got different receivers involved, and he picked and chose his spots really well.

2) Play calling

With Nick in the game, I was obviously very interested in how Doug decided to use him. Simplified game plan? Different sets?

Here’s what I wrote down for called plays:

Shotgun – run: 21

Shotgun – pass: 30

Under center – run: 6

Under center – pass: 2

I have it as a 32 to 27 pass/run split. The box score has it as a 33/28 split, so I must have missed one in there. Maybe I was on the toilet. Also, I’d have to go back and watch the entire film to see how many RPOs Doug called, since it’s nearly impossible to watch every blocking scheme in real time. Let’s just pretend this is a Quinnipiac poll with a +3 or -3 margin of error in called runs and called passes.

Either way, that’s a really nice balance, about 54% passing and 46% running. If you want to take away the final three run plays on the clock-killing final drive, you still get a 57% to 43% mix, which is a lot better than what Doug usually winds up with.

A couple of other play notes here:

QB scrambles: 2

Draw plays: 1

running back screens: 3

wide receiver screens: 3

They had two screen looks to Alshon and still tried a few RB screens even with Corey Clement not available. Doug ran 17 straight shotgun plays before trying to go under center, and Jason Peters false started on that first attempt. They finished with about 86% of their plays coming out of the shotgun and 14% coming from under center, which is not dissimilar from what they did with Carson this year.

3) Big boy blocking

Truthfully, I hated the play call on the Adams touchdown run. You’re gonna run behind Zach Ertz and Dallas Goedert?

It ended up being the best bit of blocking either guy has shown all year:

Goedert gets the first block and Ertz follows him through the hole to reach the second level. Adams squirts right through while Marcus Peters shows absolutely no interest in making a tackle at all.

Great blocking, exhibit B:

Do not let Russ see Jason Peters opening up a gaping hole, a hole that your grandmother could walk through.

Goedert is in there again, go figure.

One more play, featuring…. guess who? –

The offensive line was excellent last night. This wasn’t a game where the running backs were gashing the Rams for huge chunks of yards, but the red zone blocking was just elite, well-executed stuff.

4) Guys stepping up

Big games from all of these dudes:

Wendell Smallwood: 10 carries, 48 yards, 2 touchdowns

Avonte Maddox: started at outside corner, had a 2nd quarter interception, two pass break-ups and quality coverage on the game’s final play

Cre’Von LeBlanc: he was “flying around” out there

Rasul Douglas: putting big hits on people

D.J. Alexander: big fumble recovery on special teams

Raise your hand if you had those five guys making contributions to the win.

.

.

.

Yep, me neither.

Both lines were fantastic on the evening. Jeffery had his best game of the year. Zach Ertz still had seven targets despite the “reduced” role and Tate had some chunky yardage pickups, too.

5) Blitz me

Jim Schwartz called a really nice game. He pressured Jared Goff, who predictably folded like a soft California guy.

On the final play, Schwartz brought both linebackers and left his five defensive backs in man-to-man deep coverage:

I look at that play again and see Nate Gerry turn around to say something to Malcolm Jenkins. I wonder if that was a miscommunication or just a good sell job, because Gerry comes on a delayed blitz and I think that forces Goff to get rid of the ball a little bit earlier than he wanted to. Either way, I thought it was a pretty gutsy call to send six guys instead of just dropping 7 or 8 into coverage.

Well done, Jim Schwartz.

6) Officiating

After last week’s debacle, I’ve decided to make this a recurring entry in the column. This will continue through the rest of the season and into next year.

We had a rare “grasping the helmet opening” call on the second Eagles drive that moved the sticks on third down. Marcus Peters didn’t think it was a penalty, but replay shows he had a hand inside Smallwood’s dome. Good pickup by the ref there, leading to a key conversion.

I didn’t think the Aaron Donald hit on Foles was a roughing the QB penalty. He did get him high, sure, but he didn’t strike him in the head and he didn’t exactly follow through or bring him to the ground. Looked like he got him across the shoulder.

I thought the Eagles also got a generous spot on the third down conversion just before halftime, the 3rd and 2 to Dallas Goedert that resulted in a touchdown. Eagles fans would be complaining if the other team got this spot:

Thankfully the two key review plays were correct. That was the fake punt catch that was overturned and the Rasul Douglas goal line tackle that ultimately didn’t mean too much. I’m just happy we didn’t get a huge outrageous controversy this time around, so praise the Lord Jesus Christ in heaven for that.

7) The peripherals

Here we go:

won time of possession battle, 32 to 28 minutes

+2 turnover margin

4-13 on third down (30.7%)

0-1 on fourth down

allowed LA to go 4-12 on third down (33%)

lost 0 yards on 0 sacks

3-5 success rate in red zone

six penalties for 49 yards

That’s much more like the 2017 Eagles. They won the TOP on the strength of that +2 turnover margin. The defense really did a nice job of limiting third down conversions after allowing Dallas to go 10-19 for 52% last week. Zero sacks against that Rams line is excellent, and six penalties for 49 yards is more than manageable.

Good stuff all around.

8) Doug’s best call?

I liked 3rd and 4 draw play with Sproles on the first drive. LA wasn’t expecting that.

I also agreed with the decision to kick the field goal at about the four minute mark in the third quarter. Take the points, keep the momentum on the road, and make it a two-score game.

I honestly also did not have a problem with the 53-yard field goal try in the fourth quarter. That’s aggressive Doug. That’s the Doug we want, right? If Elliott hits that kick, the game is over. Shrug.

9) Doug’s worst call?

I didn’t have any issue with him going for it on 4th down near midfield in the first half, but the play call was what? Josh Adams out of the shotgun? The 3rd down play got you into 4th and short, and that’s what you come up with? And you do it with a guy who had left the game earlier with a head injury?

That was a weird one. Doug is good for at least one of those per game.

The only other play that kind of bothered me was the decision to run Sproles on 3rd and 8 in the fourth quarter. He almost converted, but that offensive series felt a little passive to me with about eight minutes on the clock and a 14-point lead. This game didn’t have to come down to the final play, but the Eagles half-bottled it on both sides of the field.

10) Awful announcing

How ’bout that Fresh Prince clip to start off the broadcast? Everybody hated it, but whatever, at least it wasn’t a shot of a cheesesteak or the Liberty Bell.

And how ’bout Cris Collinsworth doing his Sunday night slide in from the left side instead of the right?

#CollinsworthSlide Audible!

pic.twitter.com/zKl0ALKo8v

— SNF on NBC (@SNFonNBC) December 17, 2018

“Now here’s a guy…”

That threw me for a loop. Collinsworth always slides in from the right. Cheeky stuff right there.

Couple of other random notes from the broadcast:

Norristown native Tommy Lasorda looks pretty good for age 91

I prefer Terry McAuley to Dean Blandino and Mike Perreira.

I cringed when Collinsworth said, “All that’s missing now is the Rocky music.“

Al Michaels still seems somewhat bored to me. I think he’s ready to retire.

That’s it. Happy Monday.

The post A Hollywood Moment – Ten Takeaways from Eagles 30, Rams 23 appeared first on Crossing Broad.

A Hollywood Moment – Ten Takeaways from Eagles 30, Rams 23 published first on https://footballhighlightseurope.tumblr.com/

[flauntpage]

A Hollywood Moment – Ten Takeaways from Eagles 30, Rams 23

Turns out a healthy Nick Foles is better than an injured Carson Wentz.

Shocking, I know.

That should really be the extent of the “Foles vs. Wentz” argument that will stink up social media and sports radio this week. One guy is healthy, one guy is not. THEREFORE – at this current moment in time, I’m gonna roll with the healthy Super Bowl MVP. It seems pretty straightforward to me, but unfortunately we’re just gonna have to deal with the frothy nothing-burger quarrels for the next seven days.

I’ll tell ya what; that was the first Eagles game I enjoyed watching this year, at least for three quarters. They moved the ball up and down the field, they played aggressive and nasty defense, and I swear I saw glimpses of the 2017 squad out there.

This, of course, begs the question –

Where was this Eagles team against the Buccaneers, Titans, Vikings, Panthers, Cowboys, Saints, and Cowboys?

Surely the quarterback change was not the sole catalyst for the win, right? Nick Foles did play the first two games this season, and he wasn’t exactly Joe Montana against the Falcons or Bucs. The banged-up defense was lights out for 3+ quarters last night as guys like Avonte Maddox and Cre’Von LeBlanc made big plays. Did they miraculously transform into legitimate NFL starters overnight?

Gut feeling: the Eagles still believed in themselves while the Rams believed they were going to trash a 6-7 team in a rebound game coming off a bad loss. It’s the same underdog mentality that got the Birds a Super Bowl ring last year. “No one likes us, we don’t care” was the rallying cry then, but this year it’s more, “No one thinks we have a prayer, and we probably don’t, but we’re gonna at least go down swinging.” Maybe we can get that on a T-shirt.

I’ve been totally unenthusiastic about this team and actually mostly ambivalent over the past three or four weeks, so I won’t flip flop here and tell you how excited I am going forward. That would be the Skip Bayless thing to do, to just hop back on the bandwagon. I’m still skeptical that a banged-up Eagles team does much of anything in the playoffs, but at least they’ve given themselves a chance at 9-7 and a postseason return after slogging through a mostly miserable title defense in 2018.

1) Nick “The Franchise” Foles

He gets the ball out quicker than Carson does. That’s the big difference. Nick glides through his progressions and takes what the defense gives him. He’ll stand in the pocket and take a hit while Carson is more inclined to extend a play and try to make something happen in that fashion.

It’s not to say that Nick is better than Carson, because I don’t think he is. I think they are both pretty damn good when they’re on their game. Statistically, Foles finished 24 for 31 for 270 yards, zero touchdowns and an interception. last night and the Eagles’ offense was a meager 4-13 on third down. Wendell Smallwood and Josh Adams and Jake Elliott did the scoring.

The difference between healthy Foles and injured Carson is that healthy Foles was able to stay ahead of the chains with smart and simple plays on first and second down. He had first down conversions on 2nd and 10 and 2nd and 7 on first half scoring drives. He hit Golden Tate for 11 yards on a 2nd and 10 in the third quarter. There were only nine passing third down conversions last night, but Nick made them count and really did a nice job averting the dreaded three and out.

The only two horrendous passes I saw were the interception at the goal line and a risky screen that he probably should have thrown into the ground, but he was otherwise solid.

I wrote a story last week called “Throwing the Football Down the Field” and went through Carson’s last three game charts to find that he was 2-8 in completed passes of 20 or more yards against the Giants, Redskins, and Cowboys.

Last night, Nick was 3-5 in this category, all of which came down the right side of the field and took advantage of Alshon Jeffery’s ability to grab the ball in traffic:

That really was important, those deep shots. Carson was barely throwing those, and I wonder if the back injury was affecting his ability to step into those throws, or if the torque of the motion made those shots outside the hashmarks painful to even execute.

At the end of the day, Nick has one touchdown and two interceptions in three games this season. I don’t think he “won the game” for the Eagles last night, as some people are saying this morning, but he was steady last night, he kept the offense on the field, he got different receivers involved, and he picked and chose his spots really well.

2) Play calling

With Nick in the game, I was obviously very interested in how Doug decided to use him. Simplified game plan? Different sets?

Here’s what I wrote down for called plays:

Shotgun – run: 21

Shotgun – pass: 30

Under center – run: 6

Under center – pass: 2

I have it as a 32 to 27 pass/run split. The box score has it as a 33/28 split, so I must have missed one in there. Maybe I was on the toilet. Also, I’d have to go back and watch the entire film to see how many RPOs Doug called, since it’s nearly impossible to watch every blocking scheme in real time. Let’s just pretend this is a Quinnipiac poll with a +3 or -3 margin of error in called runs and called passes.

Either way, that’s a really nice balance, about 54% passing and 46% running. If you want to take away the final three run plays on the clock-killing final drive, you still get a 57% to 43% mix, which is a lot better than what Doug usually winds up with.

A couple of other play notes here:

QB scrambles: 2

Draw plays: 1

running back screens: 3

wide receiver screens: 3

They had two screen looks to Alshon and still tried a few RB screens even with Corey Clement not available. Doug ran 17 straight shotgun plays before trying to go under center, and Jason Peters false started on that first attempt. They finished with about 86% of their plays coming out of the shotgun and 14% coming from under center, which is not dissimilar from what they did with Carson this year.

3) Big boy blocking

Truthfully, I hated the play call on the Adams touchdown run. You’re gonna run behind Zach Ertz and Dallas Goedert?

It ended up being the best bit of blocking either guy has shown all year:

Goedert gets the first block and Ertz follows him through the hole to reach the second level. Adams squirts right through while Marcus Peters shows absolutely no interest in making a tackle at all.

Great blocking, exhibit B:

Do not let Russ see Jason Peters opening up a gaping hole, a hole that your grandmother could walk through.

Goedert is in there again, go figure.

One more play, featuring…. guess who? –

The offensive line was excellent last night. This wasn’t a game where the running backs were gashing the Rams for huge chunks of yards, but the red zone blocking was just elite, well-executed stuff.

4) Guys stepping up

Big games from all of these dudes:

Wendell Smallwood: 10 carries, 48 yards, 2 touchdowns

Avonte Maddox: started at outside corner, had a 2nd quarter interception, two pass break-ups and quality coverage on the game’s final play

Cre’Von LeBlanc: he was “flying around” out there

Rasul Douglas: putting big hits on people

D.J. Alexander: big fumble recovery on special teams

Raise your hand if you had those five guys making contributions to the win.

.

.

.

Yep, me neither.

Both lines were fantastic on the evening. Jeffery had his best game of the year. Zach Ertz still had seven targets despite the “reduced” role and Tate had some chunky yardage pickups, too.

5) Blitz me

Jim Schwartz called a really nice game. He pressured Jared Goff, who predictably folded like a soft California guy.

On the final play, Schwartz brought both linebackers and left his five defensive backs in man-to-man deep coverage:

I look at that play again and see Nate Gerry turn around to say something to Malcolm Jenkins. I wonder if that was a miscommunication or just a good sell job, because Gerry comes on a delayed blitz and I think that forces Goff to get rid of the ball a little bit earlier than he wanted to. Either way, I thought it was a pretty gutsy call to send six guys instead of just dropping 7 or 8 into coverage.

Well done, Jim Schwartz.

6) Officiating

After last week’s debacle, I’ve decided to make this a recurring entry in the column. This will continue through the rest of the season and into next year.

We had a rare “grasping the helmet opening” call on the second Eagles drive that moved the sticks on third down. Marcus Peters didn’t think it was a penalty, but replay shows he had a hand inside Smallwood’s dome. Good pickup by the ref there, leading to a key conversion.

I didn’t think the Aaron Donald hit on Foles was a roughing the QB penalty. He did get him high, sure, but he didn’t strike him in the head and he didn’t exactly follow through or bring him to the ground. Looked like he got him across the shoulder.

I thought the Eagles also got a generous spot on the third down conversion just before halftime, the 3rd and 2 to Dallas Goedert that resulted in a touchdown. Eagles fans would be complaining if the other team got this spot:

Thankfully the two key review plays were correct. That was the fake punt catch that was overturned and the Rasul Douglas goal line tackle that ultimately didn’t mean too much. I’m just happy we didn’t get a huge outrageous controversy this time around, so praise the Lord Jesus Christ in heaven for that.

7) The peripherals

Here we go:

won time of possession battle, 32 to 28 minutes

+2 turnover margin

4-13 on third down (30.7%)

0-1 on fourth down

allowed LA to go 4-12 on third down (33%)

lost 0 yards on 0 sacks

3-5 success rate in red zone

six penalties for 49 yards

That’s much more like the 2017 Eagles. They won the TOP on the strength of that +2 turnover margin. The defense really did a nice job of limiting third down conversions after allowing Dallas to go 10-19 for 52% last week. Zero sacks against that Rams line is excellent, and six penalties for 49 yards is more than manageable.

Good stuff all around.

8) Doug’s best call?

I liked 3rd and 4 draw play with Sproles on the first drive. LA wasn’t expecting that.

I also agreed with the decision to kick the field goal at about the four minute mark in the third quarter. Take the points, keep the momentum on the road, and make it a two-score game.

I honestly also did not have a problem with the 53-yard field goal try in the fourth quarter. That’s aggressive Doug. That’s the Doug we want, right? If Elliott hits that kick, the game is over. Shrug.

9) Doug’s worst call?

I didn’t have any issue with him going for it on 4th down near midfield in the first half, but the play call was what? Josh Adams out of the shotgun? The 3rd down play got you into 4th and short, and that’s what you come up with? And you do it with a guy who had left the game earlier with a head injury?

That was a weird one. Doug is good for at least one of those per game.

The only other play that kind of bothered me was the decision to run Sproles on 3rd and 8 in the fourth quarter. He almost converted, but that offensive series felt a little passive to me with about eight minutes on the clock and a 14-point lead. This game didn’t have to come down to the final play, but the Eagles half-bottled it on both sides of the field.

10) Awful announcing

How ’bout that Fresh Prince clip to start off the broadcast? Everybody hated it, but whatever, at least it wasn’t a shot of a cheesesteak or the Liberty Bell.

And how ’bout Cris Collinsworth doing his Sunday night slide in from the left side instead of the right?

#CollinsworthSlide Audible!

pic.twitter.com/zKl0ALKo8v

— SNF on NBC (@SNFonNBC) December 17, 2018

“Now here’s a guy…”

That threw me for a loop. Collinsworth always slides in from the right. Cheeky stuff right there.

Couple of other random notes from the broadcast:

Norristown native Tommy Lasorda looks pretty good for age 91

I prefer Terry McAuley to Dean Blandino and Mike Perreira.

I cringed when Collinsworth said, “All that’s missing now is the Rocky music.“

Al Michaels still seems somewhat bored to me. I think he’s ready to retire.

That’s it. Happy Monday.

The post A Hollywood Moment – Ten Takeaways from Eagles 30, Rams 23 appeared first on Crossing Broad.

A Hollywood Moment – Ten Takeaways from Eagles 30, Rams 23 published first on https://footballhighlightseurope.tumblr.com/

[flauntpage]

A Hollywood Moment – Ten Takeaways from Eagles 30, Rams 23

Turns out a healthy Nick Foles is better than an injured Carson Wentz.

Shocking, I know.

That should really be the extent of the “Foles vs. Wentz” argument that will stink up social media and sports radio this week. One guy is healthy, one guy is not. THEREFORE – at this current moment in time, I’m gonna roll with the healthy Super Bowl MVP. It seems pretty straightforward to me, but unfortunately we’re just gonna have to deal with the frothy nothing-burger quarrels for the next seven days.

I’ll tell ya what; that was the first Eagles game I enjoyed watching this year, at least for three quarters. They moved the ball up and down the field, they played aggressive and nasty defense, and I swear I saw glimpses of the 2017 squad out there.

This, of course, begs the question –

Where was this Eagles team against the Buccaneers, Titans, Vikings, Panthers, Cowboys, Saints, and Cowboys?

Surely the quarterback change was not the sole catalyst for the win, right? Nick Foles did play the first two games this season, and he wasn’t exactly Joe Montana against the Falcons or Bucs. The banged-up defense was lights out for 3+ quarters last night as guys like Avonte Maddox and Cre’Von LeBlanc made big plays. Did they miraculously transform into legitimate NFL starters overnight?

Gut feeling: the Eagles still believed in themselves while the Rams believed they were going to trash a 6-7 team in a rebound game coming off a bad loss. It’s the same underdog mentality that got the Birds a Super Bowl ring last year. “No one likes us, we don’t care” was the rallying cry then, but this year it’s more, “No one thinks we have a prayer, and we probably don’t, but we’re gonna at least go down swinging.” Maybe we can get that on a T-shirt.

I’ve been totally unenthusiastic about this team and actually mostly ambivalent over the past three or four weeks, so I won’t flip flop here and tell you how excited I am going forward. That would be the Skip Bayless thing to do, to just hop back on the bandwagon. I’m still skeptical that a banged-up Eagles team does much of anything in the playoffs, but at least they’ve given themselves a chance at 9-7 and a postseason return after slogging through a mostly miserable title defense in 2018.

1) Nick “The Franchise” Foles

He gets the ball out quicker than Carson does. That’s the big difference. Nick glides through his progressions and takes what the defense gives him. He’ll stand in the pocket and take a hit while Carson is more inclined to extend a play and try to make something happen in that fashion.

It’s not to say that Nick is better than Carson, because I don’t think he is. I think they are both pretty damn good when they’re on their game. Statistically, Foles finished 24 for 31 for 270 yards, zero touchdowns and an interception. last night and the Eagles’ offense was a meager 4-13 on third down. Wendell Smallwood and Josh Adams and Jake Elliott did the scoring.

The difference between healthy Foles and injured Carson is that healthy Foles was able to stay ahead of the chains with smart and simple plays on first and second down. He had first down conversions on 2nd and 10 and 2nd and 7 on first half scoring drives. He hit Golden Tate for 11 yards on a 2nd and 10 in the third quarter. There were only nine passing third down conversions last night, but Nick made them count and really did a nice job averting the dreaded three and out.

The only two horrendous passes I saw were the interception at the goal line and a risky screen that he probably should have thrown into the ground, but he was otherwise solid.

I wrote a story last week called “Throwing the Football Down the Field” and went through Carson’s last three game charts to find that he was 2-8 in completed passes of 20 or more yards against the Giants, Redskins, and Cowboys.

Last night, Nick was 3-5 in this category, all of which came down the right side of the field and took advantage of Alshon Jeffery’s ability to grab the ball in traffic:

That really was important, those deep shots. Carson was barely throwing those, and I wonder if the back injury was affecting his ability to step into those throws, or if the torque of the motion made those shots outside the hashmarks painful to even execute.

At the end of the day, Nick has one touchdown and two interceptions in three games this season. I don’t think he “won the game” for the Eagles last night, as some people are saying this morning, but he was steady last night, he kept the offense on the field, he got different receivers involved, and he picked and chose his spots really well.

2) Play calling

With Nick in the game, I was obviously very interested in how Doug decided to use him. Simplified game plan? Different sets?

Here’s what I wrote down for called plays:

Shotgun – run: 21

Shotgun – pass: 30

Under center – run: 6

Under center – pass: 2

I have it as a 32 to 27 pass/run split. The box score has it as a 33/28 split, so I must have missed one in there. Maybe I was on the toilet. Also, I’d have to go back and watch the entire film to see how many RPOs Doug called, since it’s nearly impossible to watch every blocking scheme in real time. Let’s just pretend this is a Quinnipiac poll with a +3 or -3 margin of error in called runs and called passes.

Either way, that’s a really nice balance, about 54% passing and 46% running. If you want to take away the final three run plays on the clock-killing final drive, you still get a 57% to 43% mix, which is a lot better than what Doug usually winds up with.

A couple of other play notes here:

QB scrambles: 2

Draw plays: 1

running back screens: 3

wide receiver screens: 3

They had two screen looks to Alshon and still tried a few RB screens even with Corey Clement not available. Doug ran 17 straight shotgun plays before trying to go under center, and Jason Peters false started on that first attempt. They finished with about 86% of their plays coming out of the shotgun and 14% coming from under center, which is not dissimilar from what they did with Carson this year.

3) Big boy blocking

Truthfully, I hated the play call on the Adams touchdown run. You’re gonna run behind Zach Ertz and Dallas Goedert?

It ended up being the best bit of blocking either guy has shown all year:

Goedert gets the first block and Ertz follows him through the hole to reach the second level. Adams squirts right through while Marcus Peters shows absolutely no interest in making a tackle at all.

Great blocking, exhibit B:

Do not let Russ see Jason Peters opening up a gaping hole, a hole that your grandmother could walk through.

Goedert is in there again, go figure.

One more play, featuring…. guess who? –

The offensive line was excellent last night. This wasn’t a game where the running backs were gashing the Rams for huge chunks of yards, but the red zone blocking was just elite, well-executed stuff.

4) Guys stepping up

Big games from all of these dudes:

Wendell Smallwood: 10 carries, 48 yards, 2 touchdowns

Avonte Maddox: started at outside corner, had a 2nd quarter interception, two pass break-ups and quality coverage on the game’s final play

Cre’Von LeBlanc: he was “flying around” out there

Rasul Douglas: putting big hits on people

D.J. Alexander: big fumble recovery on special teams

Raise your hand if you had those five guys making contributions to the win.

.

.

.

Yep, me neither.

Both lines were fantastic on the evening. Jeffery had his best game of the year. Zach Ertz still had seven targets despite the “reduced” role and Tate had some chunky yardage pickups, too.

5) Blitz me

Jim Schwartz called a really nice game. He pressured Jared Goff, who predictably folded like a soft California guy.

On the final play, Schwartz brought both linebackers and left his five defensive backs in man-to-man deep coverage:

I look at that play again and see Nate Gerry turn around to say something to Malcolm Jenkins. I wonder if that was a miscommunication or just a good sell job, because Gerry comes on a delayed blitz and I think that forces Goff to get rid of the ball a little bit earlier than he wanted to. Either way, I thought it was a pretty gutsy call to send six guys instead of just dropping 7 or 8 into coverage.

Well done, Jim Schwartz.

6) Officiating

After last week’s debacle, I’ve decided to make this a recurring entry in the column. This will continue through the rest of the season and into next year.

We had a rare “grasping the helmet opening” call on the second Eagles drive that moved the sticks on third down. Marcus Peters didn’t think it was a penalty, but replay shows he had a hand inside Smallwood’s dome. Good pickup by the ref there, leading to a key conversion.

I didn’t think the Aaron Donald hit on Foles was a roughing the QB penalty. He did get him high, sure, but he didn’t strike him in the head and he didn’t exactly follow through or bring him to the ground. Looked like he got him across the shoulder.

I thought the Eagles also got a generous spot on the third down conversion just before halftime, the 3rd and 2 to Dallas Goedert that resulted in a touchdown. Eagles fans would be complaining if the other team got this spot:

Thankfully the two key review plays were correct. That was the fake punt catch that was overturned and the Rasul Douglas goal line tackle that ultimately didn’t mean too much. I’m just happy we didn’t get a huge outrageous controversy this time around, so praise the Lord Jesus Christ in heaven for that.

7) The peripherals

Here we go:

won time of possession battle, 32 to 28 minutes

+2 turnover margin

4-13 on third down (30.7%)

0-1 on fourth down

allowed LA to go 4-12 on third down (33%)

lost 0 yards on 0 sacks

3-5 success rate in red zone

six penalties for 49 yards

That’s much more like the 2017 Eagles. They won the TOP on the strength of that +2 turnover margin. The defense really did a nice job of limiting third down conversions after allowing Dallas to go 10-19 for 52% last week. Zero sacks against that Rams line is excellent, and six penalties for 49 yards is more than manageable.

Good stuff all around.

8) Doug’s best call?

I liked 3rd and 4 draw play with Sproles on the first drive. LA wasn’t expecting that.

I also agreed with the decision to kick the field goal at about the four minute mark in the third quarter. Take the points, keep the momentum on the road, and make it a two-score game.

I honestly also did not have a problem with the 53-yard field goal try in the fourth quarter. That’s aggressive Doug. That’s the Doug we want, right? If Elliott hits that kick, the game is over. Shrug.

9) Doug’s worst call?

I didn’t have any issue with him going for it on 4th down near midfield in the first half, but the play call was what? Josh Adams out of the shotgun? The 3rd down play got you into 4th and short, and that’s what you come up with? And you do it with a guy who had left the game earlier with a head injury?

That was a weird one. Doug is good for at least one of those per game.

The only other play that kind of bothered me was the decision to run Sproles on 3rd and 8 in the fourth quarter. He almost converted, but that offensive series felt a little passive to me with about eight minutes on the clock and a 14-point lead. This game didn’t have to come down to the final play, but the Eagles half-bottled it on both sides of the field.

10) Awful announcing

How ’bout that Fresh Prince clip to start off the broadcast? Everybody hated it, but whatever, at least it wasn’t a shot of a cheesesteak or the Liberty Bell.

And how ’bout Cris Collinsworth doing his Sunday night slide in from the left side instead of the right?

#CollinsworthSlide Audible!

pic.twitter.com/zKl0ALKo8v

— SNF on NBC (@SNFonNBC) December 17, 2018

“Now here’s a guy…”

That threw me for a loop. Collinsworth always slides in from the right. Cheeky stuff right there.

Couple of other random notes from the broadcast:

Norristown native Tommy Lasorda looks pretty good for age 91

I prefer Terry McAuley to Dean Blandino and Mike Perreira.

I cringed when Collinsworth said, “All that’s missing now is the Rocky music.“

Al Michaels still seems somewhat bored to me. I think he’s ready to retire.

That’s it. Happy Monday.

The post A Hollywood Moment – Ten Takeaways from Eagles 30, Rams 23 appeared first on Crossing Broad.

A Hollywood Moment – Ten Takeaways from Eagles 30, Rams 23 published first on https://footballhighlightseurope.tumblr.com/

[flauntpage]

A Hollywood Moment – Ten Takeaways from Eagles 30, Rams 23

Turns out a healthy Nick Foles is better than an injured Carson Wentz.

Shocking, I know.

That should really be the extent of the “Foles vs. Wentz” argument that will stink up social media and sports radio this week. One guy is healthy, one guy is not. THEREFORE – at this current moment in time, I’m gonna roll with the healthy Super Bowl MVP. It seems pretty straightforward to me, but unfortunately we’re just gonna have to deal with the frothy nothing-burger quarrels for the next seven days.

I’ll tell ya what; that was the first Eagles game I enjoyed watching this year, at least for three quarters. They moved the ball up and down the field, they played aggressive and nasty defense, and I swear I saw glimpses of the 2017 squad out there.

This, of course, begs the question –

Where was this Eagles team against the Buccaneers, Titans, Vikings, Panthers, Cowboys, Saints, and Cowboys?

Surely the quarterback change was not the sole catalyst for the win, right? Nick Foles did play the first two games this season, and he wasn’t exactly Joe Montana against the Falcons or Bucs. The banged-up defense was lights out for 3+ quarters last night as guys like Avonte Maddox and Cre’Von LeBlanc made big plays. Did they miraculously transform into legitimate NFL starters overnight?

Gut feeling: the Eagles still believed in themselves while the Rams believed they were going to trash a 6-7 team in a rebound game coming off a bad loss. It’s the same underdog mentality that got the Birds a Super Bowl ring last year. “No one likes us, we don’t care” was the rallying cry then, but this year it’s more, “No one thinks we have a prayer, and we probably don’t, but we’re gonna at least go down swinging.” Maybe we can get that on a T-shirt.

I’ve been totally unenthusiastic about this team and actually mostly ambivalent over the past three or four weeks, so I won’t flip flop here and tell you how excited I am going forward. That would be the Skip Bayless thing to do, to just hop back on the bandwagon. I’m still skeptical that a banged-up Eagles team does much of anything in the playoffs, but at least they’ve given themselves a chance at 9-7 and a postseason return after slogging through a mostly miserable title defense in 2018.

1) Nick “The Franchise” Foles

He gets the ball out quicker than Carson does. That’s the big difference. Nick glides through his progressions and takes what the defense gives him. He’ll stand in the pocket and take a hit while Carson is more inclined to extend a play and try to make something happen in that fashion.

It’s not to say that Nick is better than Carson, because I don’t think he is. I think they are both pretty damn good when they’re on their game. Statistically, Foles finished 24 for 31 for 270 yards, zero touchdowns and an interception. last night and the Eagles’ offense was a meager 4-13 on third down. Wendell Smallwood and Josh Adams and Jake Elliott did the scoring.

The difference between healthy Foles and injured Carson is that healthy Foles was able to stay ahead of the chains with smart and simple plays on first and second down. He had first down conversions on 2nd and 10 and 2nd and 7 on first half scoring drives. He hit Golden Tate for 11 yards on a 2nd and 10 in the third quarter. There were only nine passing third down conversions last night, but Nick made them count and really did a nice job averting the dreaded three and out.

The only two horrendous passes I saw were the interception at the goal line and a risky screen that he probably should have thrown into the ground, but he was otherwise solid.

I wrote a story last week called “Throwing the Football Down the Field” and went through Carson’s last three game charts to find that he was 2-8 in completed passes of 20 or more yards against the Giants, Redskins, and Cowboys.

Last night, Nick was 3-5 in this category, all of which came down the right side of the field and took advantage of Alshon Jeffery’s ability to grab the ball in traffic:

That really was important, those deep shots. Carson was barely throwing those, and I wonder if the back injury was affecting his ability to step into those throws, or if the torque of the motion made those shots outside the hashmarks painful to even execute.

At the end of the day, Nick has one touchdown and two interceptions in three games this season. I don’t think he “won the game” for the Eagles last night, as some people are saying this morning, but he was steady last night, he kept the offense on the field, he got different receivers involved, and he picked and chose his spots really well.

2) Play calling

With Nick in the game, I was obviously very interested in how Doug decided to use him. Simplified game plan? Different sets?

Here’s what I wrote down for called plays:

Shotgun – run: 21

Shotgun – pass: 30

Under center – run: 6

Under center – pass: 2

I have it as a 32 to 27 pass/run split. The box score has it as a 33/28 split, so I must have missed one in there. Maybe I was on the toilet. Also, I’d have to go back and watch the entire film to see how many RPOs Doug called, since it’s nearly impossible to watch every blocking scheme in real time. Let’s just pretend this is a Quinnipiac poll with a +3 or -3 margin of error in called runs and called passes.

Either way, that’s a really nice balance, about 54% passing and 46% running. If you want to take away the final three run plays on the clock-killing final drive, you still get a 57% to 43% mix, which is a lot better than what Doug usually winds up with.

A couple of other play notes here:

QB scrambles: 2

Draw plays: 1

running back screens: 3

wide receiver screens: 3

They had two screen looks to Alshon and still tried a few RB screens even with Corey Clement not available. Doug ran 17 straight shotgun plays before trying to go under center, and Jason Peters false started on that first attempt. They finished with about 86% of their plays coming out of the shotgun and 14% coming from under center, which is not dissimilar from what they did with Carson this year.

3) Big boy blocking

Truthfully, I hated the play call on the Adams touchdown run. You’re gonna run behind Zach Ertz and Dallas Goedert?

It ended up being the best bit of blocking either guy has shown all year:

Goedert gets the first block and Ertz follows him through the hole to reach the second level. Adams squirts right through while Marcus Peters shows absolutely no interest in making a tackle at all.

Great blocking, exhibit B:

Do not let Russ see Jason Peters opening up a gaping hole, a hole that your grandmother could walk through.

Goedert is in there again, go figure.

One more play, featuring…. guess who? –

The offensive line was excellent last night. This wasn’t a game where the running backs were gashing the Rams for huge chunks of yards, but the red zone blocking was just elite, well-executed stuff.

4) Guys stepping up

Big games from all of these dudes:

Wendell Smallwood: 10 carries, 48 yards, 2 touchdowns

Avonte Maddox: started at outside corner, had a 2nd quarter interception, two pass break-ups and quality coverage on the game’s final play

Cre’Von LeBlanc: he was “flying around” out there

Rasul Douglas: putting big hits on people

D.J. Alexander: big fumble recovery on special teams

Raise your hand if you had those five guys making contributions to the win.

.

.

.

Yep, me neither.

Both lines were fantastic on the evening. Jeffery had his best game of the year. Zach Ertz still had seven targets despite the “reduced” role and Tate had some chunky yardage pickups, too.

5) Blitz me

Jim Schwartz called a really nice game. He pressured Jared Goff, who predictably folded like a soft California guy.

On the final play, Schwartz brought both linebackers and left his five defensive backs in man-to-man deep coverage:

I look at that play again and see Nate Gerry turn around to say something to Malcolm Jenkins. I wonder if that was a miscommunication or just a good sell job, because Gerry comes on a delayed blitz and I think that forces Goff to get rid of the ball a little bit earlier than he wanted to. Either way, I thought it was a pretty gutsy call to send six guys instead of just dropping 7 or 8 into coverage.

Well done, Jim Schwartz.

6) Officiating

After last week’s debacle, I’ve decided to make this a recurring entry in the column. This will continue through the rest of the season and into next year.

We had a rare “grasping the helmet opening” call on the second Eagles drive that moved the sticks on third down. Marcus Peters didn’t think it was a penalty, but replay shows he had a hand inside Smallwood’s dome. Good pickup by the ref there, leading to a key conversion.

I didn’t think the Aaron Donald hit on Foles was a roughing the QB penalty. He did get him high, sure, but he didn’t strike him in the head and he didn’t exactly follow through or bring him to the ground. Looked like he got him across the shoulder.

I thought the Eagles also got a generous spot on the third down conversion just before halftime, the 3rd and 2 to Dallas Goedert that resulted in a touchdown. Eagles fans would be complaining if the other team got this spot:

Thankfully the two key review plays were correct. That was the fake punt catch that was overturned and the Rasul Douglas goal line tackle that ultimately didn’t mean too much. I’m just happy we didn’t get a huge outrageous controversy this time around, so praise the Lord Jesus Christ in heaven for that.

7) The peripherals

Here we go:

won time of possession battle, 32 to 28 minutes

+2 turnover margin

4-13 on third down (30.7%)

0-1 on fourth down

allowed LA to go 4-12 on third down (33%)

lost 0 yards on 0 sacks

3-5 success rate in red zone

six penalties for 49 yards

That’s much more like the 2017 Eagles. They won the TOP on the strength of that +2 turnover margin. The defense really did a nice job of limiting third down conversions after allowing Dallas to go 10-19 for 52% last week. Zero sacks against that Rams line is excellent, and six penalties for 49 yards is more than manageable.

Good stuff all around.

8) Doug’s best call?

I liked 3rd and 4 draw play with Sproles on the first drive. LA wasn’t expecting that.

I also agreed with the decision to kick the field goal at about the four minute mark in the third quarter. Take the points, keep the momentum on the road, and make it a two-score game.

I honestly also did not have a problem with the 53-yard field goal try in the fourth quarter. That’s aggressive Doug. That’s the Doug we want, right? If Elliott hits that kick, the game is over. Shrug.

9) Doug’s worst call?

I didn’t have any issue with him going for it on 4th down near midfield in the first half, but the play call was what? Josh Adams out of the shotgun? The 3rd down play got you into 4th and short, and that’s what you come up with? And you do it with a guy who had left the game earlier with a head injury?

That was a weird one. Doug is good for at least one of those per game.

The only other play that kind of bothered me was the decision to run Sproles on 3rd and 8 in the fourth quarter. He almost converted, but that offensive series felt a little passive to me with about eight minutes on the clock and a 14-point lead. This game didn’t have to come down to the final play, but the Eagles half-bottled it on both sides of the field.

10) Awful announcing

How ’bout that Fresh Prince clip to start off the broadcast? Everybody hated it, but whatever, at least it wasn’t a shot of a cheesesteak or the Liberty Bell.

And how ’bout Cris Collinsworth doing his Sunday night slide in from the left side instead of the right?

#CollinsworthSlide Audible!

pic.twitter.com/zKl0ALKo8v

— SNF on NBC (@SNFonNBC) December 17, 2018

“Now here’s a guy…”

That threw me for a loop. Collinsworth always slides in from the right. Cheeky stuff right there.

Couple of other random notes from the broadcast:

Norristown native Tommy Lasorda looks pretty good for age 91

I prefer Terry McAuley to Dean Blandino and Mike Perreira.

I cringed when Collinsworth said, “All that’s missing now is the Rocky music.“

Al Michaels still seems somewhat bored to me. I think he’s ready to retire.

That’s it. Happy Monday.

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