This could be the eagles ugliest game of the season.

If there was any a time for the butt fumbler to show his true colors, its going to be next sunday.

1)The eagles lead the league in Giveways.
The eagles lead the league in Giveaways with a whopping 28. that is an average of 2.13 per game. If my memory serves me well they had 0 turnovers in their game against the cowboys. They are overdue for some turnovers against the hawks.
We all know our defense has finally returned. While we don't lead the league in takeaways, (for obvious reasons) We have had more takeaways in these past two games than any team in the NFL. The LOB is going to be the Butt Fumblers worst nightmare.

2) This is the Easiest defense we have yet to play/will play on the rest of our schedule.
The eagles rank 30/32 on defense. While this stat is not completely indicative of the whole story, (after watching their front seven tear the cowboys apart), I'm still not completely sold on them. They are 19th against the run, and 30th against the pass.

The only thing stopping me from saying that this game has blowout potential written all over it is the fact that it is a chip Kelly led team with a ten day stretch, coupled with our fondness for racking up crucial penalties on the road. This has the potential to become a blowout win for the hawks. if it is played right Unfortunately I believe we only win 1 game on the road on this stretch, and i believe it is not going to be against the cardinals. I Also believe that the cardinals will get another loss, and I'm on the verge to say that the falcons flat out win this Sunday. After that loss, I believe they won't lose again, once they find themselves in the situation the hawks where 2 weeks ago, with their backs against the wall and their #1 seed is in jeopardy.

The crucial penalties will happen if the zebras get to feeling sorry for the Eagles. Not that I'm predicting anything!

Lords of Scythia":s4csrgz4 said:

The crucial penalties will happen if the zebras get to feeling sorry for the Eagles. Not that I'm predicting anything!

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That is a bet I would like to take to Vegas. I wish Vegas would have a line like Seahawk penalties vs opponents.

If they did and people started making money by betting the Hawks would get a percentage more, I would not be surprised if the number of Hawk penalties would decrease and the opponents would increase.

Take the over.

As someone who follows both teams religiously. Seattle should win fairly convincingly. I love my Eagles, but Chip Kelly is vastly overrated. The offense looks great on paper because we consistently dominate bad defense, and given the nature of Kelly's high tempo offense we tend to pad stats in those games
.
So why should Seattle win convincingly? Look at how the Eagles do against top 10 defenses they average almost 10 points less per game. Seattle has the defense to stop the Eagles and the offense to dominate time of possession. I have a hard time seeing this being any closer than 10 points.

knownone":19uxz912 said:

As someone who follows both teams religiously. Seattle should win fairly convincingly. I love my Eagles, but Chip Kelly is vastly overrated. The offense looks great on paper because we consistently dominate bad defense, and given the nature of Kelly's high tempo offense we tend to pad stats in those games
.
So why should Seattle win convincingly? Look at how the Eagles do against top 10 defenses they average almost 10 points less per game. Seattle has the defense to stop the Eagles and the offense to dominate time of possession. I have a hard time seeing this being any closer than 10 points.

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Boy, I hope you're right.

There's two things that worry me about the Eagles. First of all, a lot of our defense is dependent of situational substitutions, and Kelly's high tempo offense takes that away. Mark Sanchez is a completely different quarterback then when he was Rex Ryan's butt fumbler. He looks to be in full control of everything, and is throwing the ball on time and on target, and he seems to be thriving in Kelly's offense.

Secondly, the Eagles have one of the best pass rushes in the game, and we have a leaky sieve of an offensive line. Ordinarily that would be a recipe for disaster, but Russell has proven himself to be very good at escaping a heavy pass rushing, heavy blitzing team, so it could be a blessing in disguise as if they don't get to Russell, he'll make them pay big time, so hopefully we'll be planning to take advantage of that heavy rush.

I expect this game to have a playoff atmosphere about it. The Eagles need this game if they want to stay in the running for HFA and remain a step ahead of the Cowboys. You have to know that ever since the schedule was announced that our game with them was a red letter date on their calendar.

RiverDog":3b0vogs4 said:

Secondly, the Eagles have one of the best pass rushes in the game, and we have a leaky sieve of an offensive line.

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Really? Because that O-line pretty much shut down San Francisco's Pro Bowl pass rush. In their house. They've had bad games this year, but things are improving. I'm tempted to place most of the pass rush problems on the fourth-string center we've been using until last week.

rainger":38xq1t9f said:

Lords of Scythia":38xq1t9f said:

The crucial penalties will happen if the zebras get to feeling sorry for the Eagles. Not that I'm predicting anything!

Click to expand...

That is a bet I would like to take to Vegas. I wish Vegas would have a line like Seahawk penalties vs opponents.

If they did and people started making money by betting the Hawks would get a percentage more, I would not be surprised if the number of Hawk penalties would decrease and the opponents would increase.

Click to expand...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/book ... truth.html

Philadelphia's special teams have had a much better year ...... they are a factor going into this upcoming Eagle/Seahawk game.

I like our newest pickup seems he's ST ace. Seems that he's an excellent gunner and good PR guy. I do agree about Philadelphia's ST's it's the only thing that kept them in the game vs San Francisco.

knownone":o0cetiuw said:

As someone who follows both teams religiously. Seattle should win fairly convincingly. I love my Eagles, but Chip Kelly is vastly overrated. The offense looks great on paper because we consistently dominate bad defense, and given the nature of Kelly's high tempo offense we tend to pad stats in those games
.
So why should Seattle win convincingly? Look at how the Eagles do against top 10 defenses they average almost 10 points less per game. Seattle has the defense to stop the Eagles and the offense to dominate time of possession. I have a hard time seeing this being any closer than 10 points.

Click to expand...

Well, since you've greeted this with an open mind(how dare you), let me play devil's advocate.

The thing I worry about with Philly is that the Hawks are not familiar with defending Chip's scheme. By the time you make adjustments, it could be too late, which brings me to our offense.

They've had back to back games where they couldn't score above 19pts and currently can't find their ass with both hands in the RZ. I've noticed that, even against top 10 Ds, Philly has managed to score more than 19pts, so that's a problem. We will need more production from our O to win this one.

MontanaHawk05":1au6exm1 said:

RiverDog":1au6exm1 said:

Secondly, the Eagles have one of the best pass rushes in the game, and we have a leaky sieve of an offensive line.

Click to expand...

Really? Because that O-line pretty much shut down San Francisco's Pro Bowl pass rush. In their house. They've had bad games this year, but things are improving. I'm tempted to place most of the pass rush problems on the fourth-string center we've been using until last week.

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I'm 70% sure River and Sgt Largent are the same person, both being Prelag. Both accounts are constantly negative, arguing anything and never standing by something. Neither posted during our Superbowl run but both showed up after Prelag got banned and he went on a huge thing about never being able to stop him which got him banned (I saw his meltdown post about being in a wheelchair and will always be here).

I hope so. But it will be pretty hard for Philly to look worse than the 53-20 wipeout they had a couple weeks ago vs Green Bay. Remember, they are 6-0 at home this year. And it is potentially for HFA and the #1 seed so I expect their best.

However, they have not seen a D like ours before. We can stay in our base D throughout most of the game. We can rotate the Dline every other series to keep them fresh. The Eagles like to snap the ball with 20 seconds on the clock so conditioning is the biggest obstacle. But Sanchez will turn the ball over a couple times. Guaranteed.

Their D however.....well it sucks. Nothing to be worried about here. We should be able to control the clock and keep their offense on the sidelines. Time of possession will be important. I expect another 200+ yards in rushing from us.

And keep in mind that they lost to the 49ers who created 4 turnovers and controlled the clock for 42 minutes! They allowed only 214 yards to them. And Seahawks > 49ers.

HawKnPeppa":1wtfz31r said:

knownone":1wtfz31r said:

As someone who follows both teams religiously. Seattle should win fairly convincingly. I love my Eagles, but Chip Kelly is vastly overrated. The offense looks great on paper because we consistently dominate bad defense, and given the nature of Kelly's high tempo offense we tend to pad stats in those games
.
So why should Seattle win convincingly? Look at how the Eagles do against top 10 defenses they average almost 10 points less per game. Seattle has the defense to stop the Eagles and the offense to dominate time of possession. I have a hard time seeing this being any closer than 10 points.

Click to expand...

Well, since you've greeted this with an open mind(how dare you), let me play devil's advocate.

The thing I worry about with Philly is that the Hawks are not familiar with defending Chip's scheme. By the time you make adjustments, it could be too late, which brings me to our offense.

They've had back to back games where they couldn't score above 19pts and currently can't find their ass with both hands in the RZ. I've noticed that, even against top 10 Ds, Philly has managed to score more than 19pts, so that's a problem. We will need more production from our O to win this one.

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Misleading. Seattle speeds up the game, making their final point totals look worse. Part of this includes being less aggressive about scoring with a lead than most teams. Seattle could have certainly scored more points in both of its last two games if they cared to.

Red zone issues are just not as important as some people seem to think. It'd be nice to convert more in the red zone, sure. But scoring is what ultimately matters, and Seattle is good at scoring, especially when adjusted for game pace.

MizzouHawkGal":2ozmchif said:

I like our newest pickup seems he's ST ace. Seems that he's an excellent gunner and good PR guy. I do agree about Philadelphia's ST's it's the only thing that kept them in the game vs San Francisco.

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Yes, Purifoy is now looking like a brilliant and extremely timely acquisition by JS. Neutralize Sproles on returns, don't give them any free yardage.

knownone":1egx7lq4 said:

As someone who follows both teams religiously. Seattle should win fairly convincingly. I love my Eagles, but Chip Kelly is vastly overrated. The offense looks great on paper because we consistently dominate bad defense, and given the nature of Kelly's high tempo offense we tend to pad stats in those games
.
So why should Seattle win convincingly? Look at how the Eagles do against top 10 defenses they average almost 10 points less per game. Seattle has the defense to stop the Eagles and the offense to dominate time of possession. I have a hard time seeing this being any closer than 10 points.

Click to expand...

That's an interesting take on Kelly's system. I don't know that I'd call it overrated, but I too share some skepticism in wondering if Chip Kelly's kind of high tempo offense can be sustainable long-term in the NFL. I mentioned this in the other thread and I'll share the same thing here.

Kelly's offense strikes me as being somewhat similar to another that I remember was in vogue during the early 1990s -- the Run and Shoot. Mouse Davis developed that spread offensive system while at Portland State and brought it to the NFL with the Lions. Like Kelly's offense, teams that employed the run and shoot were able to rack up tons of yards and could score quickly. In 1991, the Lions ended up going 12-4 w/Barry Sanders and a prolific offense that could chew up chunks of yards and score in a hurry. They burst on the scene much like the Eagles and had a lot of people talking. Soon, the Falcons and the Oilers adopted the Run and Shoot and were off and running. By the mid-1990s though, that offense had virtually disappeared from the NFL. Why in the world is that?

Well, one of the criticisms of that system that people levied against teams that ran it was that they had trouble holding the lead. One of the flaws inherent in that system was that because the offense could score so quickly ... that they didn't give their own team's defense enough time to rest. Those teams had good running backs, but their offense wasn't predicated on running the ball and milking the clock. As a result, the defenses of the teams who employed the Run and Shoot tended to be on the field quite a bit. So, by the 3rd and 4th Quarter -- many of those defensive players were just flat out gassed and opposing teams were able to come back on them. The best example of that being the Oilers, who in 1992 had a 35-3 Lead at Halftime over the Bills in the AFC Wild Card Game. Unbelievably, they ended up losing to the Bills 41-38 in Overtime. The Lions and other teams had similar examples of games just like that -- which is why the Run and Shoot virtually disappeared by the Mid to late 1990s.

Someone can correct me if I'm wrong, but it's my understanding that Chip Kelly utilizes a lot of the elements that Mouse Davis employed with the Run and Shoot. And (like those Run and Shoot teams) I see some similar effects that it could be having on the Eagle's defense ...

The Eagles are allowing an average of 258.6 Passing Yards/Game (ranked #28 overall) ... and are allowing an average of 107.7 Rushing Yards/Game (ranked #13 overall).

Why is that the case? One reason I'd argue they're giving up so many yards is because the Eagles' defense is on the field more than most teams. Here is a comparison of where the Seahawks and Eagles rank in terms of time of possession this year ...

Seahawks -- 7th in Time of Possession (average of 31:25 per game)
Eagles -- 29th in Time of Possession (average of 27:45 per game)

http://www.teamrankings.com/nfl/stat/average-time-of-possession-net-of-ot

Opposing teams have rushed the ball 332 times against the Eagles (tied for 5th most attempts against) ... and have passed it 447 times against them (3rd most attempts against). Those numbers make sense, as the Eagles' defense is on the field more than most. One reason I would say that they are allowing 7.6 yards/pass attempt (Tied for 20th) is that their defense is on the field more than most teams (and as fatigue sets in, the yards allowed naturally go up.).

That's not to say that I'd like the Seahawks to get in to a shootout with this team. I'd say that's the last thing we want is to do in this game. As always, the key to victory is going to be Marshawn Lynch, controlling the time of possession (something we've been very good at) and keeping that prolific offense off the field. It was those quick strike offenses of the 1990s like the Lions (and the problems that they faced) that convinced me that Pete Carroll has it absolutely right when it comes to his philosophy of offense. Run the ball. Chew up the clock. Keep your opponent off the field. And give your defense time to rest -- that way, the Legion of Boom has a lot more thunder for the 4th Quarter.

As far as your contention regarding the strength of the Seahawks Defense and Offense, Football Outsiders agrees with you.

According to Football Outsiders, the Seahawks rank (as of 11/25) ...

7th in Defense DVOA [-7.3%]
8th in Offense DVOA [10.5%]

Looking at the numbers, this Seahawks team is going to be the strongest DVOA team (on both sides of the ball) that the Eagles have faced all year long. The next best DVOA team that the Eagles have faced this season is the Packers (2nd in Offense DVOA [25.4%] ... and 13th in Defense DVOA [-0.7%]). The Pack absolutely annihilated the Eagles 53-20. While I don't expect that kind of a Mortal Kombat thrashing in this game, it's clear that the Eagles have struggled against some of the top defenses in the league. For sure, this should be an interesting game and one that I believe the Hawks have a good shot of stealing another win on the road.

I don't see this roll ending yet. I liken this to the role we got on near the end of the 2012 season. At least defensively. Nearly every Super Bowl preview last year had to mention the Bronco hurry up offense and how problematic that was supposed to be for a team like the Seahawks that rotate so much on defense, blah, blah, blah... The fact is, three and out is three and out. Or, one, two, sack/pick, is more like it.

trharder":3b3rqcm3 said:

I don't see this roll ending yet. I liken this to the role we got on near the end of the 2012 season. At least defensively. Nearly every Super Bowl preview last year had to mention the Bronco hurry up offense and how problematic that was supposed to be for a team like the Seahawks that rotate so much on defense, blah, blah, blah... The fact is, three and out is three and out. Or, one, two, sack/pick, is more like it.

Click to expand...

Yeah, fast pace or not, the LB corps and secondary won't change much. The big boys might get a bit winded though.

blazen2392":vxn8mrm0 said:

If there was any a time for the butt fumbler to show his true colors, its going to be next sunday.

1)The eagles lead the league in Giveways.
The eagles lead the league in Giveaways with a whopping 28. that is an average of 2.13 per game. If my memory serves me well they had 0 turnovers in their game against the cowboys. They are overdue for some turnovers against the hawks.
We all know our defense has finally returned. While we don't lead the league in takeaways, (for obvious reasons) We have had more takeaways in these past two games than any team in the NFL. The LOB is going to be the Butt Fumblers worst nightmare.

2) This is the Easiest defense we have yet to play/will play on the rest of our schedule.
The eagles rank 30/32 on defense. While this stat is not completely indicative of the whole story, (after watching their front seven tear the cowboys apart), I'm still not completely sold on them. They are 19th against the run, and 30th against the pass.

The only thing stopping me from saying that this game has blowout potential written all over it is the fact that it is a chip Kelly led team with a ten day stretch, coupled with our fondness for racking up crucial penalties on the road. This has the potential to become a blowout win for the hawks. if it is played right Unfortunately I believe we only win 1 game on the road on this stretch, and i believe it is not going to be against the cardinals. I Also believe that the cardinals will get another loss, and I'm on the verge to say that the falcons flat out win this Sunday. After that loss, I believe they won't lose again, once they find themselves in the situation the hawks where 2 weeks ago, with their backs against the wall and their #1 seed is in jeopardy.

Click to expand...

The DVOA of the Eagles defense has them ranked 8th in the league, right behind Seattle at 7th. I don't buy into ESPN stats. That defense isn't half bad.

rainger":pf17gek6 said:

Lords of Scythia":pf17gek6 said:

The crucial penalties will happen if the zebras get to feeling sorry for the Eagles. Not that I'm predicting anything!

Click to expand...

That is a bet I would like to take to Vegas. I wish Vegas would have a line like Seahawk penalties vs opponents.

If they did and people started making money by betting the Hawks would get a percentage more, I would not be surprised if the number of Hawk penalties would decrease and the opponents would increase.

Click to expand...

Just talk to the manager of any smaller sportsbook. If you'll agree to the juice, he'll agree to the bet.

A sensible O/U would be 8.5 @ -110 but they'd want to ding you for -120 ( I'd run, not walk, away from that).

One thing I don't like about this game is the 10 day rest. Do we ever play well after byes or extended periods of rest?