If The Eagles Falter This Season Look No Further Than Juan Man.

The guy is a hack and might be gone before the real season even starts. But the real news is the self serving attempt by Reids agent to force Lurie to commit to Reid for life. Strange media grabbing event. If Reid is directing he is even a sicker puppy than I thought.

I already commented on the Reid's agent thing so I will leave that alone, but I think you may be on to something with Juan. He might find himself stripped of his duties if his defense falters again.

The more Im thinking about Juan the more I think you are on to something. When you get right down to it his inability to put a consistent effort together is beginning to bleed into other areas f the team. It could be a deal breaker and send both sides of the ball crashing down. This isnt gonna be a work in progress this year. That D has to perform or there could be a team rift.

EZ is right on this. And so are you. It was "straight retarded s*it to hire Juan but it wasnt an accident like you may think. The Eagles want to control things from upstairs. You must prove you will tow the company line then you are an insider. If Lurie could sign Reid for life without flak he would do it. Hes got his henchman that will tilt a season anyway he wants it to go. Eagles wont win a superbowl as long as Lurie is owner and Reid is coach. They are all about grabbing headlines and staying in the news. Other than that, they are an above average team. ZThats it and thats what Lurie wants a team that wins enough but isnt good enough to win it all. As long as the revenue keeps pooring in who needs that superbowl trophy anyway.

I think you are going too far with this, but it was about control. Reid believes in this new pass happy NFL that teams need to be able to rush the passer. He decided the best way to do that was to incorporate the Wide 9 and use his offense to get a lead early forcing teams to pass more. The thing is no real defensive coordinator likes the wide 9 system. I exposes the defense against the run especially if the linebackers are small. The only way Reid could run this system would have been to find a sucker willing to do it. Enter Juan Castillo. Todd Bowles isn't going to take this coordinator job if Juan fails. He has aspirations of one day bing a head coach. This gimmicky defense could kill those aspirations.

You make another good valid point. Historically, the Eagles relied on good solid defense. Yes they blitzed but they were very diciplined. They played above their talent level under Reid. Jim Johnson was the main reason. His team had an identity and loved their DC. I have not seen any evidence that Juan has a handle on his personnel of an identity for his defense. Hes lost.

Monday will be a big test. Tired of hearing all the excuses. They just need to get out there and play hard.

you are 100% right. Think about it EZ they havent even strung enough good defensive efforts together to even determine their "style" of defense. I honestly can say I dont know what we have at all on defense. And on offense we have great speed and ? A couple of bad breaks this year and this will be the long goodbye season for Andy Reid. SAnd it will be riddled some wimpy front office PR that will make it some kind of senitimental journey. Im concerned.

Maybe we should curve the concern a little knowing
the team has only played one pre-season game.
I think this is a big test regardless how long
the Patriots play their starters. I want to see the
first team players get into a grove.

true but people on here think the Giants are a fluke and the Cowboys and Redskins pose no threat. They are wrong. They probably say the same thing about the Eagles. The Giants are the team to beat and every other division team has to prove their value.

You know I don't agree with that logic. The
Eagles need to show me they are better than
everyone else, and not because some YB ID with
delusions of grandeur says so.

If this defense fails once again, Juan Castillo's continued employment should be reason alone for Reid's termination.

If this team fails this year you can say goodbye to Vick , Reid, Castillo and any other dead weight. It will be a big rebuild fraud and the fans will be asked once again to wait for things to develop. This is the last stand for this group. How mant more seasons does it take for the idiot fans to realize Reid cant and wont win a superbowl.

I would agree.

Castillo was hired for one reason only: he's a figure head. Reid wanted to hire Jim Washburn so that he could lure in Babin and then Jenkins. Unfortunately no other D-coordinator out there wanted to work for Washburn. So Reid decides to promote Castillo, a guy who will do anything Reid asks of him. Unfortunately, Castillo sucks as a coordinator and Reid, after having failed miserably with McDermott as coordinator, can't afford to fire Castillo.

Reid may not be able to fire Juan, but if Juan's defense causes this team to falter early again he my not have a choice.

As much as like Washburn, the Eagles did it wrong. The hiring process that is.

castillo is a joke. the organization downgraded the position when they got rid of mcdermott. Mcdermott wasnt bad but he just didnt have anything new to offer. But, making that idiot DC has taken the defense to a new low and kept management in full control. No outsiders allowed. Nobody with any real credentials was gonna come to a place where they couldnt build a powerhouse. So they settled for the guy they can control. They should have made the ball boy the DC. Same thing. But, these self centered fools are about to get a big lesson. The crash a comin and when it does Lurie will find out he isnt that clever.

McDermott was a bad coordinator, but I can't help but to wonder had he gotten some of the toys Castillo had like Jenkins, Babin, Nnamdi,and DRC instead of bums lie Patterson, Not So Macho Harris, Trevard Lindley, and many other stiffs no longer on this team, McDermott could have made that defense work. No one with a half of brain can tell me that in any way shape or form Juan is a better DC than McDermott.

McDonalds has sucked in Carolina, so I don't think he would have done a much better job with the talent than Castillo. I actually think Castillo has done a decent job considering he hasn't coach defense at the NFL level before. I blame Reid for putting him in this position though.

I also think Washburn is overrated. D-lineman, like Babin, love him because they get huge sack numbers, but his philosophy is clearly flawed. Reid was faced with a choice: talent (Babin and Jenkins) or coaching (a real D-coordinator) and he chose talent.

I completely disagree. McDermott lost his best defensive player and he improved the Panthers defense. The team as a whole improved by 4 games. The Eagles under Juan (despite gaining more talent) have won fewer games and only improved two positions. With McDermott as DC we made the playoffs twice (with less talent) and under Juan we lead the league in 4th quarter collapses. If McDermott is bad (and he is), then Juan stinks! I agree with you on Washburn and this system. Personally I think these guys could get sacks without the wide 9, but it isn't just the system, but the defensive play calling. They have a philosophy of thinking if they sit back and play zone they will get a bunch of sacks and it's true, but what they fail to realize is that coverage sacks have a different effect on quarterbacks than blitz pressure sacks. In other words a quarterback can still get into a rhythm despite giving up a coverage sack. Zones in effect make defenses soft. Players play areas and react to where the football is going. All receivers need to do is find those wholes in zones, and if the 4 down lineman don't get there a zone can really be exposed for big yardage. This is why Skelton killed them in the 4th quarter last year. This is why Tom Brady embarrassed them last year. Why Alex Smith and Fritzpatrick came back on them. Team have to blitz (something they did more in this game), but it's more than just blitzing. A team has to scheme blitzing. Show an 8 man front, but only send one extra. Keep the quarterback guessing and wondering where the blitz is coming from. Just because a team plays a Zone it doesn't mean they can't blitz. Right now the Eagles defense is not dictating tempo, because they aren't aggressive. JJ's defense did dictate the tempo and that's why the Eagles were successful for so many years.

I agree. What made JJ so good was that an opposing QB never knew where the blitz was coming from. With Juan, it seems like every play the opposing QB knows what scheme we are running on defense. These last several seasons have shown me that having a good defensive coordinator is more important than having good talent.

I dont know what the scheme is. to me it looks like a mosh pit. Looks kind of telegraphed with different players lining up all over the place. Overcoached and the movement and schemes arent fooling anyone.

I agree with this although a little talent never hurt anyone. The key is for coordinators to know how to use the talent they have on the roster. Of course some of the problem is Juan's lack of experience with the players and another problem is Juan experimenting with players. A clear case of that is Jarrett. The guy was never known to have great foot speed or to be a great cover guy, nevertheless Juan tries to use the guy as a coverage safety keeping him several yards out of the box. The only thing Jarrett was truly known for was hitting and they completely changed his role within this defense. Consider how JJ used Brian Dawkins. He was JJ's most talented player and he used him properly. In my opinion part of the problem is Juan's own inexperience, another is his unreasonable expectations for certain players, and finally the scheme (rather the philosophy of the scheme)as a whole. Can the Eagles win despite all of this? Yes, but that will take Mike Vick staying healthy and I'm not sure if he is capable of that.

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Once again bone headed plays allowed the Browns to drive on the first string. Fortunately they got a turnover to finally stop the drive, but still the first string shouldn't be happy about their performance.

I agree. They moved the ball that was the significant thing about the defense. But they spun a turnover as evidence this D stepped up. If that were the Giants Eli rips them a new hole.

People will overlook the performance since the got the turnover. Hey that was a good thing, because it was a Red Zone turnover which means they didn't give up points in the Red Zone. They aren't going to stop everyone every time, but I would have liked to see a 3 and out there. Still it was an improvement over the prior two weeks.