dms9950

I have to agree and disagree about Bradford. I agree with that opposing teams may try and take shots at Bradford but I disagree about the deer in headlights looks. Also, the NFL protects their premier QB's and if Bradford/Eagles light it up, Bradford will be protected by the refs just as Brady, Rodgers, Manning, Roth and Flacco are. As for the read-option, the Eagles ran 3 total read-option plays for the 15 plays that Bradford was under center and it is arguable that the play that Suggs hit Bradford wasn't even a read-option but just a called delay (two different things that look similar which Kelly calls quite often). The vast majority of teams play vanilla during PS and the Eagles were no different. Our starters played no more than 19 snaps for the entire game except for our RG who played 55 snaps but that is only because he is new. Outside of Gardner there were no starters on the field after the 3rd possession exchange - even the Eagles kicker didn't play the second half. I personally do not like the read-option but it is what it is. I do like the up tempo offense though because this is the direction football is going. Points scored is what attracts crowds and the rules are skewing this even through penalties. In 10 years a good defense will be one that only allows 25 points a game. I also agree that the read option puts the QB at risk but Vick & RGIII are both extremely injury prone and just bad quarterbacks.

About a 5. I'm retired and have been watching football since the late 1950's and I like to talk football. I also have a lot of Ravens friends that I watched the game with and we've been just shooting the breeze about football this year in general and I like to read other teams forums about the games against the Eagles. Just reading through this thread I noticed that there were a number of things said that were incorrect about Kelly and the Eagles in general so I thought I would pipe up. Take it for what's it worth and know that I'm not hear to trash talk and will probably leave this msg board until the next time the Raves/Eagles play.

As an Eagles fan that has watched the game 3 times now and know personally a number of media members that were at the joint practices, here is my opinion of the game: 1. The Suggs hit was borderline but legal. 2. The refs ruined this game. The number of flags thrown was stupid and ruined the game. 3. For those that are saying that Kelly game planned you are sorely mistaken. That was Kelly vanilla. As for the no-huddle offense, that's what Kelly does. For the Eagles top operate out of the huddle is akin to the Ravens operating out of the no-huddle. 4. The Ravens can't handle an up-tempo offense. They over-pursue and part of the up-tempo is misdirection and spreading the field. While Ravens D is strong, it can't compete with fast team when it can't play a smash-mouth styled defense. 5. The Ravens as a whole looked frustrated from the very start of the game. The Eagles tempo forced the Ravens to practice this week at a much higher tempo than they were used and they players didn't want to be in Philly for that reason. Then on top of that the general consensus of the people that I talked to that watched the joint practices, the Eagles skilled players outplayed and out practiced the Ravens players. The 11/11's and 7/7's the Eagles O had no issue moving the ball at will against the Ravens during practices and that frustration clearly was on the field during the game. 6. The Eagles are loaded on offense and they play to their identity. One of the philosophies of Kelly is that there are no off plays. There are no plays where we play like this and then for others we play like this. It's just the same thing every play and the players that didn't buy in were shipped out. The Eagles identity is that they will out hustle everybody on offense and the defense is built on the front 7, of which their top 3 MLB's weren't playing. Their secondary is suspect because there are 3/4 new starters with one of them being a rook. The fact that the Ravens were even able to run the ball is a good sign for your backup OLmen because the Eagles have one of the top 3 front 7's in all of football. 7. The Ravens D looked exhausted from the start. As for the comments about vanilla defense is a joke. They played against these same players for 3 days straight and they didn't execute correctly. That's it really. It was a decent game but refs ruined it with the flags. Without the flags we are looking at a 27-17 score, not a 40-17 score (refs or not, the Ravens weren't winning that game).