So by now, the league has heard all about the shocking Redskins trashing of the Eagles this week. What was expected to be a close game ended up being a blow out. Coach Chuck Nasty of the Eagles was absolutely irate with his team after the game, but more so had one player in mind.
In an interview after the game Nasty put it clear as day “Marsh got his chance and he blew it, he (expletive)ing blew it.” Yikes. Not exactly sugarcoating it now is he? In fairness though, Curtis Marsh did have one of the worst games all season for any player at any position. Aside from Big Ben’s 11 and 8 pick games, this might rank up there as the biggest stinker and is undoubtedly the worst defensive play of the year. But who is Curtis Marsh and why was he starting over the recently on fire Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie.
Curtis Marsh is a former 3rd Round pick who started out the year with a break out 4 interception game. Slowly and steadily he has worked on his Man to Man coverage and eventually earned the starting strong safety role by default when no one stepped up to take it. Nate Allen was always a solid deep zone playmaker but lacked much else. He has performed very admirably all year and apparently the Eagles brass wanted to give him a shot to earn some valuable experience at cornerback where they saw him as the future no.2 corner. (with Nnamdi Asomugha eventually moving to Strong Safety himself and DRC moving to no.1). He has a well rounded game, but lacks one very major thing. Athletic ability. Chuck Nasty said “I felt the Redskins lack of receivers would be an easy way to transition him into the starting lineup” and boy was he wrong. Curtis Marsh was torched not once, twice, but  three times by leonard hankerson on long bombs on deep 3rd and 20’s. Robert Griffin abused him all game and eventually Nasty put Marsh back at dime corner where he began the season. Then on a 3rd and 20+ again he gave up a first down by not covering his man. Nasty blew up and threatened to cut him right there. Things were looking up for Curtis Marsh, but needless to say he has to play lights out down the stretch to have a pivotal role on this team in the future. For now the Eagles are re-evaluating their team and trying out new defensive schemes in the wake of their collapse versus the Redskins. “I feel the game was a lot closer and we just couldn’t convert third downs or stop them on third down. Next time around we’ll have a better game plan” said Nasty. Also of side note the Eagles have been practicing two a days every day ever since their loss and vow to get better from it. “We don’t make excuses. When we lose, we know we have to get better just like we did versus the Giants”. Nasty wouldn’t reveal much, but did say that the team was trying a more complex defense by expanding the playbook. The offense is also getting some work in and from what I saw it appears they are making the offense even more fast paced with even more looks which could prove amazing…or disastrous. Only time will tell in Eagleland.
