NFL 2013 Week 2 Thread - Go back to college Chip Kelly!

[Lightning Lord]

Amazingly Rivers finishes up with under 200 yards passing and completing less than half of his passes. What a glorious mirage it all was.

He finished as my top-scoring QB this week in Dynasty. I am kicking myself for not locking him into a sixteen year contract. :bang:

[Commodore]

Randy Bullock ftw

always nice to see a fat kicker do well

[Kalbear]

I'm not sure why anyone was surprised about the Redskin-Eagles game; Chip Kelly has spent the last 6 years making Washington his personal gimp. He's gotten exceedingly good at it.

[KalibakCruel]

A little late, but that Chargers/Texans game ended up being AWESOME. I was sweating on TWO ends, I had the Houston D and my fantasy opponent had Andre Johnson...that pick 6 saved my fantasy week!

Edit: Not to mention how awesome it was to see the NFL's biggest Bro make that sick INT.

[Littlefingers In The Air]

I wake this morning and find out the Chargers lost? Wow. Well, at least I went 5-3 in fantasy this week.

[Commodore]

Cushing pick 6

[Maithanet]

So maybe this is just excuse making, but I wasn't terribly impressed with the Eagles last night. Now, obviously they deserved to win, and Kelly's game plan was very effective. BUT it also meant that Vick, and to a lesser extent, McCoy, were taking an awful lot of shots. Even in the first half, Vick missed several very open people, and in the second half was noticeably less sharp. At times he seemed to be hobbling. I don't know how many times the Redskins put a hit on him just after he got rid of the ball, but it was a lot (not to mention the sacks and tackles on running plays). If that is going to be the game plan going forward, then Vick has no chance whatsoever of making it through the season, and in all likelihood, they will need to have a 3 quarterback rotation. That isn't a winning formula. If Kelly is going to run this kind of offense, he at least needs a big guy at quarterback who might survive those hits.

In addition, the accolades for the Eagles defense strike me as mostly undeserved. In the first half, the combination of atrocious special teams (how many times can we start inside the ten?) poor ball security, holding penalties and uncharacteristically poor execution from Griffin meant that the offense wasn't going anywhere. Sure, good defenses make the offense look bad, but if Washington cannot run basic stretch plays without a hold or a fumble, it doesn't take the '85 Bears to stop them.

Which brings me to the topic I have been avoiding, which is why the Redskins were so terrible in all three phases of the game. For most of the game, I would actually say the defense was playing the best of the three units. Given how much they were on the field, most of the time they were doing acceptably well. Certainly if our offense was able to sustain some drives, I think that our coaches would have been faster to adjust and the defense faster to the ball. I'm not too worried about the defense this year (I wasn't expecting it to be great anyway).

Why was the offense so bad? Is Griffin going to stop playing like a rookie and start playing like he played last year? There were signs of life in the second half, but by then it was too late to really say for sure. The one real chance we had to get back in it (down 13, 8 minutes left, driving), we still had a false start while the clock was running down on 4rd and 10. I just have to hope that if we can do some things correctly, like not turning the ball over on the first three possessions, then other things like the running game will start to fit into place. And that Griffin will get his throwing legs back.

Also, Chris Thompson needs to learn the joys of the touchback. For a while there, it started to feel like starting at the 20 was some unreachable dream.

[awesome possum]

Yeah, Vick is going to get the hell beat out of him again this year. And the Eagles definitely won't have opponents gifting them 12 points to start most games. It was fun to watch but I don't see it lasting without Vick learning how to avoid hits (seems too late in his career for that) or better protection.

[BLU-RAY]

Maith- there's a reason that the ACL injury is usually a 1.5 year recovery. RGIII wasn't planting and driving through his throws last night, and he consequently missed some and underthrew some. We'll see if it's rust or if he's still favoring the knee a little going forward.

[Trebla]

It's hard to tell how it's going to play out with the Eagles. I do think that high octane offense will only work this year with Vick at the helm and he's probably the most fragile QB in the league right now. It was impressive to see the Eagles fly out of the gates like that but it didn't last and suddenly the game was in doubt. I don't know if that was the Eagles suddenly not executing or the Skins making defensive adjustments that checked the Eagles attack. The latter is going to be the great question going forward. Can the defensive gurus, now having the Eagles on tape, come up with schemes to slow down the Eagles offense.

[Gold Storm]

Vick will have to run less, and and get down before contact. It looks like they like the offense it utilities their talents. This team has a lot a holes and it will take time to rebuild. I think they will give Chip the time he needs to put in his style of players and see if it will work in the NFL.

[ljkeane]

Maith- there's a reason that the ACL injury is usually a 1.5 year recovery.

I'm pretty sure it's 9 months. It might be a bit early to expect him to be back to his best but I think 18 months is probably a bit conservative.

[Jaime L]

So maybe this is just excuse making, but I wasn't terribly impressed with the Eagles last night. Now, obviously they deserved to win, and Kelly's game plan was very effective. BUT it also meant that Vick, and to a lesser extent, McCoy, were taking an awful lot of shots. Even in the first half, Vick missed several very open people, and in the second half was noticeably less sharp. At times he seemed to be hobbling. I don't know how many times the Redskins put a hit on him just after he got rid of the ball, but it was a lot (not to mention the sacks and tackles on running plays). If that is going to be the game plan going forward, then Vick has no chance whatsoever of making it through the season, and in all likelihood, they will need to have a 3 quarterback rotation. That isn't a winning formula. If Kelly is going to run this kind of offense, he at least needs a big guy at quarterback who might survive those hits.

I think this underplays just how badly we got worked in that first half and the reason why. Keep in mind, Vick wasn't precise at all (missing easy throws here, holding the ball too long out there) and they still, all things being equal, probably should've been up 38-0 at halftime. They engineered ridiculous amount of space both for McCoy and their receivers simply out of scheme. With Maclin injured this is a flawed, not overwhelmingly talented offense, but they looked unstoppable out there at times last night.

And even if Vick gets injured that's not a terrible blow because Foles probably provides 90-95% of the value of Vick at this point. He can't provide the read option element, but he'll probably be more accurate as a thrower. Can't recall a time I've seen us look so helpless against an offense while feeling so meh about the performance of the opposing QB.

The real question to me is what adjustments Haslett was able to make in the second half that bottled up the Eagles. Kelly is not one to take the foot off the gas so clearly we figured out something that worked as far as disrupting it. We'll see how sustainable it is. I'm firmly in the camp that believes Kelly's offense will blitzkrieg almost any team that's not overwhelmingly more talented defensively.

[Kalbear]

Kelly actually did take his foot off the gas; he even said this last night. If you've watched Oregon football you can tell this too; the pace was slower, the playcalling favored running significantly more, and he was far more willing to punt instead of go for it.

As scary as it sounds - next week you'll see Kelly learn from this - and you'll see an even faster pace.

[Independent George]

I'm pretty sure it's 9 months. It might be a bit early to expect him to be back to his best but I think 18 months is probably a bit conservative.

It's 9 months until you're cleared to play again, but most athletes who've had their knee scoped say it usually doesn't feel quite the same for another 6+ months afterwards, even if it's physically back to the same strength.

Knowing absolutely nothing about what he or the doctors said, I think he should have been kept on the PUP list for as long as possible, and only partly because I'm a Giants fan and don't want to see him play.

[BLU-RAY]

ljkeane - to be fit to play, yeah, I think 9-12 months is the timetable. To reach peak pre-injury levels of play usually takes a full 18 due to rust, psyche, stability, etc.

In the NFL, Peterson is the only player I've seen defy that timetable (or in basketball), and even he wasn't a complete force until October, with the same timing as Griffin.

[Commodore]

it seems like Kelly's system can still be effective without exposing Vick to hits

awesome gif, Charger fans get up and leave while the kick is in the air

[Mexal]

It's 9 months until you're cleared to play again, but most athletes who've had their knee scoped say it usually doesn't feel quite the same for another 6+ months afterwards, even if it's physically back to the same strength.

Knowing absolutely nothing about what he or the doctors said, I think he should have been kept on the PUP list for as long as possible, and only partly because I'm a Giants fan and don't want to see him play.

He'll be fine. It's more of a psychological thing then a physical thing. You could see him planting and throwing in the 2nd half once his confidence in his knee got up. AP was a similar way. He didn't become the real AP until October. Carson Palmer was similar as well when he came back from his ACL. RG3 will be fine though it might take a few games to work through the rust and confidence issues.

[ljkeane]

ljkeane - to be fit to play, yeah, I think 9-12 months is the timetable. To reach peak pre-injury levels of play usually takes a full 18 due to rust, psyche, stability, etc.

It's 6-9 months before you're cleared to play, usually 9 months for contact sports I think. I take the point that there's some recovery beyond simply being physically fit to play but I still think 18 months would be very conservative. I've done it twice in the last three years, obviously being fully fit to play a professional sport is at a completely different level but requiring the same time again as the rehab wasn't anywhere near my experience. If he's not near his pre injury performance (from his knee) by about 12/13 months I'd be surprised if he's ever going to get back to that level.

[BLU-RAY]

LJ- fair enough, my main point is that there always, always seems to be a significant gap between a player getting a physical clearance and regaining form. 18 months may be overstating it, but Griffin is on what, 8.5 months? Actually, probably like 7.5 months since surgery.

For NBA players I know that they tend to regain form half a season into their return.