From: un032221@wvnvms.wvnet.edu
Newsgroups: rec.sport.football.pro
Subject: Re: Eagles #1 Quarterback-----------
Date: 18 Nov 92 00:41:57 GMT
Organization: West Virginia Network for Educational Telecomputing

In article <1dqq9jINN4vs@aludra.usc.edu>, tehyang@aludra.usc.edu (Teh Kao Yang) writes:
> In article <1992Nov10.153447.15860@athena.mit.edu> centry@athena.mit.edu (Jae H Nam) writes:
>>Give my vote for Randall.  Without question.
> 
> Same here. As far as I'm concerned, Randall IS the Eagles. To me he's the
                                              ^^
> embodiment of that team and why I became an Eagles fan. Whether they win or
> lose, I want him at the helm leading the team. I like McMahon a lot too, but
> somehow it's just not the same. There isn't that exciting atmosphere that you
> get whenever you see Randall in there at QB.
> 
> -Teh Kao

	I think what Randall has to do is to fight his instincts.  Early in the
season when he was doing great several things were happeneing:
	1:He had a running game.  Herschel Walker hasn't been a force running
the ball since the fast start.  I noticed in the Dallas game #2 that Herschel
didn't get much work from his favorite spot, that being deep in the backfield. 
Herschel needs to be in this slot because he doesn't have the agility to make a
quick cut before getting to the hole if he's any closer, and he'll have better
vision, and better power from this alignment.  If Walker gets this slot alot,
he tends to be at least a respectable RB.  Otherwise he's nothing special.  
	If Herschel isn't performing for any other reason (I can't draw a
conclusion on the slump from any other game since I was only really looking in
the Dallas game.) then perhaps it's time to switch RBs.  Heath Sherman seems
to be doing fairly well of late, and seems to have more explosion in him than
does Walker.  If Sherman is the answer then Kotite should try him, and forget
Herschel and all his $$$.
	Another RB point is that any good RB will tell you that after about
15-20 carries they start to hit a groove.  Therefore if a RB is to be as
effective as he can be, he should carry the ball 20-25 times a game.  This is
where Walker is most effective as well.  Against Green Bay I believe I saw that
he had only 12 carries.  Against a team that likes to hold onto the ball like
Gb does, this is unacceptable.
	2:He was willing to settle for short gains.  Randall, after his season
long injury last year said that he learned alot from watching Jimmy Mac run the
O.  McMahon doesn't go for the TD on every pass, and constructs drives, rather
than hail mary passes.  Cunnigham began doing this early in the year, but of
late has returned to his habits of old where he looks for the big play every
down, and refuses to accept 5 yard patterns as a real option.
	Coupled into this problem is the loss of Kieth Jackson.  I know Keith
never got into an Eagles game this year, but is it any coincidence that Randall
collapsed the week after Jackson was officially gone?  I don't think so. 
Randall was coping when he though Keith was returning, but when he found out he
was gone for good, he began to fall apart.  
	3:He threw to the WRs.  Early this season, the big news with the
Eagles, as much as with Walker was that he was throwing to Barnett and
Williams.  Both are adequate starters, and Cunningham used them perfectly early
on.  Now, however, he seems to want to throw deep posts, or sprints or nothing
at all to Barnett and Williams.  This kind of predicatability makes it easy for
single coverages to play Barnett and Williams, but they aren't getting single
coverage.  They are getting doubled on top of it.
	This is another loss of Keith problem.  No other TE is effective over
the deep middle like Jackson was.  Jackson forced Williams and Barnett to have
a much easier time, and, more importantly, Jackson was Randall's GoTo guy.  On
3rd and 8, who did Cunningham search for?  Jackson.  That is gone, and he
hasn't developed a replacement.  Byars tried to play TE, but couldn't get deep
like Jackson could.  Byars also seemed to get stuck at the line frequently, and
nobody could stop Jackson  at the line.
	Byars then went and broke an arm, rendering his blocking skills, his
biggest contribution to the Ealges gone.  The Eagles need to find someone
Randall has faith in to play TE.
	4:Randall threw the ball with timing.  Early on, Randall dropped back 5
or 7 steps, and released the ball quickly to the first available open target. 
Now, he drops back 7 steps, looks deep until the rush nearly gets him, then he
tries to dump it off, or run it.  You could tell in the Dallas game that he
dropped back with no intention to pass the ball, but rather to attack a
man-man coverage with his scrambles.  This happened once or twice, but even
that often is obscene for a QB to do (assuming I read it right).  
	Cunningham needs to learn to get rid of the ball quickly, and that he
scrambling is not the focus of the offense.  I think installing rollouts, as
they did this week, is the wrong approach until he learns how to pass from the
pocket.  You need to encourgae him to take his quick drops, stop, set, and
throw the ball.  No more drop, stop, set, pump, rollout, pump, point, and
takeoff running.
	This isn't saying that his running isn't a threat, but he's got to
learn quickly that it's a LAST resort, not the focus of the O.  I think Kotite
has to assert to Randall that this is his team, and he's calling the shots.  He
did this with the Jimmy Mac swap, but then made concessions by adding extra
rollouts and desgined scrambles.  He should throw them all out of the playbook,
and call some 3 step drop timing patterns aimed atb hitting WRs, and noone
else.  He should try to use Roy Green, and his sure-handedness a bit (I have
seen Barnett and Williams drop a few well thrown passes, and am sure that I
didn't see all of them.  This destroys a Qbs confidence in his wideouts, and
ANYTHIGN should be tried to restore that confidence.)  
	5:He was part of a team, and not THE team.   Your statement of "Randall
IS the Eagles" is exactly how he feels right now.  This is wrong.  He has to
understand that he is one of 47 cogs that turn to get the team to win.  If he
has a bad game, the other 46 cogs are still there.  At the same time, however
he must also know that he is the BIGGEST cog, and that the other 46 will be
strained if he slacks off.  
	Cunnigham must play as a team player, and try to LEAD the TEAM on
drives.  He has to stop thinking "I AM Randall Cunningham, and if I don't score
a TD here then my team is doomed"  I believe Dan Marino had difficulty at one
point understanding why the Dolphins had to run more than a few times a game,
since he believed his arm to be able to carry them (this is vague recollection
so don't flame me if I'm way off base here).  Cunningham has to see himself as
the motivator, and the leader, not as the guy that has to do it all while
everyone else slacks off.

	Another factor is that the Eagles D hasn't been playing as crisply, but
that is involved with team decay, and only has a minor impact on Randall's
confidence.
	-Skins fan.