The difference this time is that the Eagles now have a guy who can burn you in one play if you don't give deep help on him. I'm convinced they dedicate an entire practice session each year to work on defending the Westbrook screen game. We know that the Giants' gameplan against the Eagles is always focused on stopping Brian Westbrook. More importantly, an advantage this Eagles team has over previous Eagles teams is DeSean Jackson. Sportz: What advantage do the Eagles have on the Giants?ĭerek: The Eagles seem to have all the oars pulling in the same direction, in a way that might not be totally true for New York. You'll lose a few battles that way, but you may rack up enough "no gains" to force the offense to change its play-calling. So if he's not a speed guy you worry about popping off 60-yard runs, and if your base defense will yield seven-yard gains even if things work out the way you hope, then you might as well jam the line and try to stop him in the backfield before he gets going. The thing with Jacobs, though, is that because he gets so much momentum going and it takes more than one guy to tackle him, you're almost not going to bring him down close to the line of scrimmage anyway, if there's a hole. Generally speaking, defenses are afraid to stack too many guys at the line of scrimmage because if the back breaks through, there's no one at the second level to bring him down. Not to dork out too much on the tactical stuff, but Jacobs provides an interesting and somewhat unique situation, I think. That's easier said than done, of course, but if he hits the hole unimpeded, he's got too much inertia going to knock him back. The key, then, seems to be stopping Jacobs behind the line of scrimmage. Brandon Jacobs, on the other hand, is an unholy terror who can snap a secondary like match sticks. Derrick Ward and Ahmad Bradshaw are nice players, but they seem like "take what you get" backs. I've watched the Giants a number of times this year, and while they have a very good offensive line, I really think two of their three running backs are kind of ordinary. That, of course, starts with stopping the run. Sportz: How do you think the Eagles will deal with the Giants explosive offense?ĭerek: The Eagles really need to keep the Giants in predictable down-and-distance situations. He really struggled on the longer kicks early in the year, but after nailing two 39-yarders and a 42-yarder last week against the Seahawks, he just might have things turned around. Of course, most folks out there don't care much about the Eagles' third-string running back, so for the population at large, you'd have to say David Akers - until the last couple weeks. He looked great in minicamps, but the minute the pads came on, he disappeared. For hard-core fans, it's clearly Lorenzo Booker, the off-season acquisition who was supposed to provide a big-play ability as a kick returner and complement to Brian Westbrook in the backfield. Sportz: Who has been the biggest disappointment, thus far?ĭerek: That's a question where the answer really depends on how close you are to the Eagles. UConn Men's Game Against Butler Canceled Due to COVID-19
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