Sports

[gardenman]

It'll be interesting to see how the addition of Tate plays out in personnel groupings. Agholor excelled last year as the slot receiver. Tate is typically thought of as a slot receiver. Both guys can and do play outside also. The Eagles tend to be a "flood the field" team when it comes to the offense. Very rarely do they go max protect and only send two guys out on routes. The Eagles are a one back (no fullback) team and typically rely on their five linemen for pass protection. That means that on passing downs there are typically five receivers out running routes. Lots of potential targets. Typically that'll be three wideouts (Jeffery, Agholor, and Matthews/Tate) a tight end (typically Ertz) and a running back (ideally Sproles but he's been dinged most of the year.) Sometimes they'll go to two tight ends (Ertz and Goedert) or even three tight ends (Perkins.)

A lot of what the Eagles do depends on the defense. If the defensive coordinator comes out in a base defense (two corners) and trusts the linebackers and safeties to cover Ertz, Goedert, and Perkins, all of whom are big and fast, the Eagles will go to three tight ends. This gives them more blocking at the point of attack for runs, but also an advantage in passing as few linebackers/safeties can match up consistently with those tight ends. If the opposition goes to a nickel or dime package (5 or 6 DB's) then the Eagles can flood the field with the speedier receivers like a Tate or Agholor for a matchup, or rely on an Ertz or Goedert for their size advantage.

You seldom go wrong adding a talented, no bad attitude guy to a team. Tate is one of those guys other teams hate, but his teammates love. The Eagles are constantly rotating receivers to get a size or speed advantage and Tate gives them a very versatile guy to add to that rotation. I suspect he'll take plays away from Jordan Matthews more than from Agholor, but coaches will sometimes go with the hot hands, so whoever is catching the ball and getting open will likely see a lot of playing time. The Eagles could even put Tate in the backfield in place of Sproles on occasion. He played RB in high school and I believe some in college, so anything is possible. I'm not sure many defensive coaches would be happy facing Jeffery and Matthews on the outside, Agholor in the slot, Ertz as tight end and Tate flashing out of the backfield. Covering all five of them would not be easy.

[gardenman]

Tate ended up in a good place for both him and the Eagles, but imagine if Green Bay had gone after him? Tate and Aaron Rodgers would have been fun to see together. The Lions fans might have torn down the stadium if he'd been traded to Green Bay, but he'd have been a fun toy for Rodgers.

[teganslaw]

Fans will be hearing more about QB Nick Mullins after last night. He had an outstanding debut against the Raiders. I watched most of the game, and he looked like another Mahomes. 

Maybe the Raiders are really that bad and are tanking, and maybe Mullins benefited from some great playcalling from Shanahan. Or he could be that good, a star in the making. He'll have to play more teams before we know for sure. I was impressed with SF last night, though. 

Colts' Guard Quenton Nelson won Offensive Rookie of the Month for October. He is the first guard ever in the NFL to win that honor. 

It shows how far the Colts have come with their O-line and protecting Andrew Luck. Now they just need to concentrate on pass rush and winning moire games. 

[redwingsgal]

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@gardenman wrote:

Tate ended up in a good place for both him and the Eagles, but imagine if Green Bay had gone after him? Tate and Aaron Rodgers would have been fun to see together. The Lions fans might have torn down the stadium if he'd been traded to Green Bay, but he'd have been a fun toy for Rodgers.

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Yes, I would have, @gardenman !!!

[gardenman]

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@redwingsgal wrote:

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@gardenman wrote:

Tate ended up in a good place for both him and the Eagles, but imagine if Green Bay had gone after him? Tate and Aaron Rodgers would have been fun to see together. The Lions fans might have torn down the stadium if he'd been traded to Green Bay, but he'd have been a fun toy for Rodgers.

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Yes, I would have, @gardenman !!!

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Yeah, trading Tate to a rival would not have gone over well with Lion's fans, but they'd an interesting pair on the field.

[teganslaw]

The Steelers-Ravens rivalry is strong. Joe Flacco made the remark that the team he played in September "wasn't the toughest Steelers team he faced." That did not go over well with Pittsburgh players, and they will be out to show Flacco just how tough they are.  Watch the penalties and fireworks fly. The game is televised in our area, but I'll miss the first half because of work. I'll have to catch up on what, if anything, happened. 

[gardenman]

An interesting little sidenote on the Golden Tate trade. The Eagles have Braxton Miller ( the former Ohio State QB now a WR) on the practice squad. Those two guys have pretty similar physical traits. I suspect the Eagles hope Tate passes on some of what he's learned to Miller giving them a younger, lower cost version of Golden Tate. I wouldn't be shocked to see those two spending a lot of time together.

[pateacher]

Steeler-Ravens is always a hard-fought, exciting game.  Here we go, Steelers, here we go!

[gardenman]

To the surprise of pretty much no one, the Cards have released Sam Bradford. They ended up paying him about $13.5 million to play in the three games he played in before being replaced. That was one of those free agent signings you looked at and wondered what the Cards were thinking.

[gardenman]

This should be a fun day of football watching. I start out with a choice between the Steelers/Ravens or Redskins/Falcons. At four-ish I get the Saints/Rams, then tonight the Packers/Patriots. All four of those games have lots of potential.

The Steelers/Ravens will be more of a street fight than a football game. Those teams just don't like each other.

The Falcons are absolutely desperate for a win and have a very highly talented passing offense. If the Falcons lose, they'll be 3-5 and well behind both Carolina and the Saints. The Falcons are in "must win" territory here and the Redskins are beatable, but can the Falcons get the win? A Falcons win combined with losses by the Saints and Panthers (both possible) would have the Falcons back in the hunt in the NFC South.

The Saints and Rams are the two best teams in the NFC and likely a preview of the NFC championship game right now. Which team will stake a claim to being the best? 

And tonight the Packers and Patriots meet up with arguably the two best quarterbacks of this generation going head to head. Green Bay desperately needs the win at 3-3-1, but does Rodgers have the talent around him to get it?

On a side note, I've finally got my cable turned back on after five plus months without it due to financial issues from the broken femur, only to find that Comcast has moved the NFL Network into a "Sports Tier" where it would cost me $10 more a month for the NFL Network. Seriously? As much as I like GMFB and Kay Adams, I'm not paying another $10 a month to watch it and her. Oh well, I can still see the video clips of the show on NFL.com.