The Eagles saved themselves 2 weeks of grief and went out and beat the San Francisco 49ers by a score of 40 - 26. The Eagles played this game without Brian Westbrook (broken ribs), Shawn Andrews (back), and Reggie Brown (groin). Now, with the Eagles bye week, it is hoped that they Eagles can get their wounded healthy, and possibly, get Kevin Curtis back from his sports hernia.
The score itself was somewhat deceptive. San Francisco had control of this game for a good portion of the 2nd half, before the Eagles defense finally asserted itself.
The scoring opened in the 1st quarter with a San Francisco field goal with the big play being a 45 yard punt return from ex-Eagle Allen Rossum. The Eagles responded with a big kick return of their own (courtesy of Quintin Demps) that culminated in a 1 yard Correll Buckhalter plunge.
After another San Francisco field goal to make the score 7 - 6, the Eagles drove the ball 78 yards in just over 5 minutes. This time, they scored on a fade pattern from Donovan McNabb to Hank Baskett from 5 yards out.
After a Niner punt, the Eagles drove the ball once more on the strength of two McNabb to DeSean Jackson connections that totalled 53 yards. The Eagles' red zone woes continued, however, as all the Eagles could muster on the possession was a 19 yard field goal from David Akers to make the score 17 - 6.
The Niners did manage to tack on another field goal before the Eagles took over on their final drive of the first half. They drove the ball to the San Francisco 36 yard line where they attempted a field goal with 1 second remaining. The field goal was blocked and picked up by ex-Eagle Donald Strickland, who took the ball into the endzone for a San Francisco touchdown.
The blocked field goal set the tone for the 2nd half as the Niners held the ball through most of the 3rd quarter. The Niners came out for the 3rd quarter and went right down the field, scoring a touchdown on a Frank Gore 6 yd run, giving San Francisco the lead at 23 - 17. After an Eagle punt, the Niners took the ball again and held it for over 6 minutes, but could only cobble together another Joe Nedney field goal to make the score 26 - 17.
The Eagles finally fought back in the 4th quarter, taking advantage of a short field from a poor San Fran punt. The Eagles only had to drive 38 yards to bring them within 2 points on a pass from McNabb to LJ Smith from 2 yards out. Another San Francisco punt later, the Eagles drove 31 yards, which was enough for a successful David Akers field goal try to put the Eagles in the lead by a score of 27 - 26. Niners coach Mike Nolan did unsucessfully challenge the field goal, which seemed to be well above and barely within the uprights, giving the impression that the field goal was no good.
At about the 7 minute mark of the 4th quarter, the Eagles defense finally asserted itself. Quinton Mikell intercepted a JT O'Sullivan pass and took it all the way back to the Niner 7 yd line. This enabled the Eagles to tack on another Akers field goal to make the score 30 - 26.
The defense got the ball back again, this time on a Trent Cole sack and strip of quarterback JT O'Sullivan. Chris Clemons recovered the fumble and the turnover led to another Akers field goal to make the score 33 - 26.
The final nail in the coffin for the Niners was when Juqua Parker intercepted a poorly executed screen pass from JT O'Sullivan and rumbled 55 yards for a touchdown to make the score 40 - 26 and to put the game completely out of reach.
The Eagles will now enter their sorely needed bye week, in which they'll get some of their offensive weapons when they take on Atlanta at the Linc on October 26th.
Notes:
- "Most drops in the NFL"....Thanks Andy for bringing "5" some playmakers.
- I know the announcers cried about Baskett's first quarter reception not being a catch, but there was not nearly enough to overturn the call. Actually, it looked to me like Baskett had his arm under the ball the entire time.
- The blocked field goal leading into the end of the 1st half was bad enough. Watching the Eagles defense get pushed around for the 2nd week in a row was much more tough to take. Frank Gore did rush for 101 yards and the Niners ran successfully on the Eagles. They can count on teams following that blueprint for the rest of the season.
- Takeo Spikes picking McNabb.....some sort of karmic middle finger?
- LJ Smith....who knew he was still on the team?
- The tackle on DeSean Jackson at the 10 minute mark of the 4th looked worse than it was; it wasn't a clothes line, per se. A clothesline tackle is around the neck....this was across Jackson's chest.
- Congrats to Donovan McNabb for breaking Ron Jaworski's all-time passing yards record with the Eagles. Question: Why was Dick Stockton so reluctant to refer to Jaworski by his given nickname when it was brought up? Jaws' nickname was "The Polish Rifle"....Stockton shortened it to "The Rifle". Clearly, Jaws doesn't mind the nickname...he incorporates it into some of his autographs.
- Not sure it was the right play for Nolan to challenge the field goal by Akers, but according to the rules, it IS challengeable, despite what the announcers said.
- Nice play by Juqua Parker blowing up the end around with about 6 minutes left in the game. This was right before the Quinton Mikell interception. Parker had a huge game, in general, with 4 tackles, a sack, and an interception for a touchdown.
- Huge game from Correll Buckhalter, playing in place of Westbrook. He 18 carries for 93 yards to go with 7 receptions for 85 yards. Very much Westbrook-like numbers.
- DeSean Jackson: 6 catches for 98 yards along with a 19 yard punt return in the 2nd quarter.
Didn't get a chance to write up a game report from the Eagles' 24 - 20 loss to the Chicago Bears last Sunday night, but I did want to mention a couple of pertinent things to take away from the game.
In short, the game against the Bears represents a missed opportunity on a couple of levels. It was a winnable road game that would have nicely position the Eagles for the 2nd quarter of their schedule. Unfortunately, there is not much to be done about it now, but to break down what went right and what went wrong.
Offense. 1.) I felt that Donovan McNabb actually had about as good of a game as you're going to have when you're missing your best wide receiver, your best running back/offensive weapon, and your starting tight end. In going 25 for 41 for 262 yards and a touchdown, you can't lay this loss at McNabb's feet. He spread the ball to an astounding 9 different receivers.
2.) The offensive play that probably garners the most attention will probably be the call on 4th and 1 to run Buckhalter up the middle. I have no problem with the call to go for it on 4th down in that spot. What I will take issue with is putting the ball in Buckhalter's hands rather than McNabb's. To reiterate what John Madden said during the telecast, you put the ball into the hands of your best player and the Eagles' best player is McNabb (at least he is as long as Westbrook is hurt).
3.) Another thought that struck during the game on Sunday night and during the final drives during the Dallas game is how much better the Eagles would be with a dominant wide receiver or tight end they can count on when they need a crucial 3rd down late in the game. I think DeSean Jackson is going to be a weapon on this team this year, but I don't think he's at that stage of utter reliability late in a game just yet.
Defense. 1.) The defense played well for the most part, but when they didn't get through on the blitz, they got burnt badly. They did force Kyle Orton to turn the ball over 4 times, but I wonder if they waited too long to dial things back and make Orton work for his touchdowns a bit more.
2.) If you give Kyle Orton 10 opportunities to make that throw that he made to Devin Hester when they hooked up for a touchdown, he misses that pass 8 times out of 10. It was a heckuva throw by Orton and a good grab by Hester, with Asante Samuel trailing in his wake.
3.) The defense did not come through after they Eagles offense whiffed on that 4th down by the goalline. They allowed Matt Forte to run through them at key situations. While Stewart Bradley played OK, he has to step up in that spot as the leader of the front 7 and make sure that doesn't happen.
4.) Omar Gaither was a beast in this game with 9 tackles and a recovered fumble.
Special Teams. 1.) The area I think Andy Reid will only address after it is too late is the matter of David Akers not being a trustworthy kicker from over 40 yards. Akers' two misses, one of 50 yards and the other of 47 yards, has a direct effect on the decisions to made by Reid during the game (HINT: the 4th down call at the goalline might have been a field goal at that stage of the game). If Akers hits even one of those two kicks, the Eagles probably win this game.
I don't want to put the whole loss on Akers; they had other opportunities to win it. But during the NFC Championship years, Akers used to be an absolute weapon from over 40 yards and ever since Koy Detmer stopped holding on field goals, he's gone downhill. This has got to be a mental thing at this stage for Akers; he needs to solve it before the weather gets colder outside and long field goals become even more difficult to hit. I wouldn't mind seeing Reid bring in a kicker who can hit those longer field goals if Akers is unable to get it done from long distance anymore.
Getting back to DeSean Jackson, it was pointed out during the telecast that he wasn't quite the same player, offensively, after he put the ball on the turf early in the 2nd quarter. Hard to disagree with that; it seemed that he and McNabb were not on the same page on the interception that McNabb threw in the 2nd half. If Jackson is going to be an offensive weapon this year, he can't take mistakes he might make on special teams with him into the offensive huddle.
In a defensive performance reminiscent of the Buddy Ryan defenses of the late 80's, the Eagles beat the cross-state rival Steelers by a score of 15 - 6.
The Eagles sacked Steeler quarterbacks 9 times and forced 3 turnovers, all 3 of which came from Steeler QB Ben Roethlisberger. Even the sacks and turnovers don't tell the real story; Roethlisberger was harrassed and harried the entire time he was in the game and the Eagles simply beat him up. Eventually, Roethlisberger injured his throwing hand, and came out of the game to be replaced by Byron Leftwich.
Offensively, the Eagles moved the ball easily during the 1st half, only to be undone by mistakes such as a Tony Hunt fumble or the McNabb interception towards the end of the first half. The Eagles did manage to punch the ball into the end zone during the 2nd quarter on a pass from Donovan McNabb to Correll Buckhalter.
Ultimately, however, injuries also played a part in the Eagles' offensive woes as they lost all-World RB Brian Westbrook towards the end of the 1st quarter to what appeared to be an ankle sprain (post-game X-rays ruled out a break).
The injury bug bit the Eagles coming out of halftime as well, as Donovan McNabb did not come out with the team to start the 2nd half for what was reported as a chest injury. Kevin Kolb came on and, after having a ball tipped for an interception on his first attempt, settled down and looked Ok, going 2 of 3 for 18 yards.
When McNabb did come back, it was to loud cheers and he replaced Kolb at around the 10:00 minute mark in the 3rd quarter.
The special teams also played a significant role in the second half, in the form of the punting of Sav Rocca. Rocca punted the Eagles out of a hole from deep in their own territory at the start of the 4th quarter, effectively, reversing the field position on a 64 yard effort from his own 11 yard line.
Rocca also nailed two punts that pinned the Steelers to within their own 10 yard line. The fruits of Rocca's labor was realized when the Eagles induced Ben Roethlisberger into an intentional grounding in the end zone, resulting in a safety. While the intentional grounding call itself may have been questionable (Roethlisberger appeared to be outside the tackle box), replay did show that Roethlisberger was actually tackled down in the endzone before he threw the ball anyway.
Next week, the Eagles face another tough defense, when they travel to Chicago to face the Bears. In the meantime, the entire city will be focused on Brian Westbrook's MRI to determine how long he will be out.
Photo: Yahoo.com (Photo by Chris Gardner/Getty Images)
A late Donovan McNabb fumble while the Eagles had the ball in Dallas territory proved to be the pivotal play in a wild, back and forth Monday Night Football game that the Eagles dropped to the Cowboys by a score of 41 - 37.
When McNabb fumbled, the Eagles were leading by 3, and had just had a long kickoff return from rookie Quinton Demps put the ball into Dallas territory. Just as it looked like the Eagles were poised to at least put up another field goal, a botched handoff lay on the turf to be picked up by the Cowboy defense.
The Cowboys then took possession and drove the ball right down the field, eventually scoring the winning touchdown on a 1 yd Marion Barber run.
This game between 2 bitter rivals started out innocently enough, with the Eagles taking the ball and driving for a field goal, and then got goofy on the next possession where Tony Romo hit Terrell Owens with a 72 yd bomb to put the Cowboys ahead 7 - 3.
After another Akers field goal, the Cowboys returned the subsequent kickoff for a touchdown as rookie Felix Jones took it to the house to make it 14 - 6 Dallas.
Late in the 1st quarter, the Eagles benefitted from Asante Samuel's first Eagle interception as well as a fluky pass interference penalty to give the Eagles the ball at the 1, where, after a false start, Brian Westbrook caught a 6 yd pass from Donovan McNabb to pull within 1.
The next possession, after a botched Dallas kickoff return that pinned the Cowboys deep in their own territory, Tony Romo somehow managed to drop the football all on his own in his own endzone. Romo gathered the ball in his own endzone and was looking at his options, when Brian Dawkins busted in and knocked the ball away from Romo, causing a fumble ultimately recovered in the end zone by Chris Cocong for a touchdown and a 20 - 14 Eagles lead.
The next possession, the Cowboys methodically drove the ball down the field for yet another Terrell Owens touchdown, this time from 4 yds out to go up by a point.
The following possession by the Eagles could have been one of the most controversial ones of the year had they not scored on it. Eagles' rookie DeSean Jackson gathered in a Donovan McNabb pass and was coasting in for a touchdown, when, he inadvertantly flipped the ball before he went into the endzone. The ruling by the officials gave the Eagles the ball at the 1 yd line where Brian Westbrook took Jackson off of the hook, by punching the ball into the endzone for a 27 - 21 Eagles lead.
The two teams traded field goals as the half ended, with Eagles leading 30 - 24.
After an exchange of punts to open the 2nd half, the Cowboys struck first on a 17 yd pass from Tony Romo to Marion Barber. Barber earlier had a 20 yard burst to go with a Trent Cole roughing penalty that put the Cowboys in position in Eagle territory. The Eagles answered with a drive of their own that culminated in another Brian Westbrook touchdown as the 3rd quarter was ending to make the score 37 - 31 Eagles.
After the Cowboys drove and settled for a field goal to start the 4th quarter, the Eagles could have really salted the game away with another touchdown. Instead, we got the McNabb fumble and a hearty handshake.
Notes:
- Yup, still hate TO.
- Brian Dawkins....burnt on the TO slant for a TD and again on a post route from Jason Witten on the winning Cowboy drive.
- Sean Considine.....bit HARD on the Tony Romo shoulder fake on the 72 yd bomb.
- Speaking of the TO bomb....hey LEE-toe...what happened?
- Donovan....please learn to throw the ball away a little sooner. This indecision twice cost them on their final drive.
- DeSean Jackson....we love you and all, but don't EVER pull that stunt again.
The Eagles jumped on the Rams from the opening possession and never looked back in beating the Rams by a score of 38 - 3.
The game featured a return to form for Donovan McNabb, who hit 7 different receivers en route to a 21 for 33 day, good for 361 yards and 3 touchdowns. The game was also something of a coming out party for the rookie receiver out of Cal, DeSean Jackson. Jackson caught 6 balls for 106 yards and made his presence felt on special teams with a couple of good punt returns.
The Eagles opened the scoring on the first drive of the game on a 1 yd shovel pass from McNabb to Brian Westbrook. That drive took 6 plays to go 80 yards and the Eagles made it look easy. After a subsequent Rams possession and punt, the Eagles scored again, this time on an 11 play, 52 yard drive that culminated in a 5 yd TD pass from McNabb to LJ Smith. These two scoring plays accounted for all of the scoring in a crisply played 1st quarter for the home team.
The 2nd quarter featured possessions on both sides, where the teams just traded punts. It was difficult to tell if the Rams were that bad offensively or if the Eagles played that well defensively. The Eagles got the lone TD of the 2nd quarter on a 90 yard catch and run by WR Hank Baskett. The score took place with about a minute to go in the half and the Eagles took a 21 - 0 lead into halftime.
The 3rd quarter opened and was all Eagles. Tony Hunt scored on a 1 yard plunge culminating a 9 play, 56 yard drive that was keyed by a 25 yard pass down the right sideline from McNabb to DeSean Jackson.
Jackson was also prominently involved in the Eagles' next scoring, when he returned a punt 60 yards to the Rams' 9 yard line. Unfortunately, the Eagles could not punch it in and had to settle for a 23 yd Akers field goal.
The scoring continued in the 4th quarter with a Brian Westbrook 6 yard run that finished a 7 play, 76 yard drive to make the score 38 - 0. From this point, the Eagles put in the 2nd team to finish up the game.
While the offensive exploits will grab all of the headlines, the defense compiled some pretty good numbers. They allowed only 8 first downs and 166 yards of total offense. They did not force any turnovers, but did manage to sack Mark Bulger 4 times. MLB Stew Bradley was active throughout the game, with 8 tackles and a sack.
Did You Notice?
- 3 Eagles receivers with 100 yards games (Jackson 106 yds, G. Lewis 104 yds, Baskett 102 yds).
- Sheldon Brown CRUSHED Stephen Jackson on a pass that Jackson caught down the seam in the 2nd quarter. Jackson lost his helmet on the play and danced around like he scored a touchdown, but make no mistake, Jackson felt every bit of that shot.
- DeSean Jackson's first career catch: 47 yards. Remember when we thought that Jackson wouldn't make much difference as a receiver his rookie year? Remember?
- Speaking of Jackson, he almost took a punt to the house at the 10:28 mark in the 3rd quarter. A shoestring tackle was all that was between Jackson and a punt return TD. He almost had another TD later in the 3rd quarter at the 3:26 mark when he turned in a 60 yard return to set the Eagles up with 1st and goal at the Rams' 9 yardline.
- That interference call against Quinton Mikell in the 2nd quarter, with the Rams backed down to their 2 yard line, was a ridiculous call.
- Asante Samuel should have had a pick 6 on the Rams' second possession in the 2nd half.
- Mark Bulger looks like a QB waiting to get hit as he sits in the pocket. If he's your fantasy football QB, go ahead and feel free to drop him.
- On the drive that the Eagles settled for a field goal, McNabb had an opportunity to run the ball in for a TD, but tried a shovel pass that (obviously) did not work. I suspect if the score were closer, McNabb would have run that ball.
- The Eagles ran (sort of) a jumbo backfield with both Tony Hunt and Dan Klecko in the backfield when they scored their 4th TD.
- Kevin Kolb doesn't look half-bad in doing some mopup work. This game definitely had the feel of a 5th preseason game, so I guess it was appropriate that Kolb spelled McNabb at the end.
Photo...yahoo.com (Photo by Jim McIsaac/Getty Images)
After this season, we will have seen a full decade of the Andy Reid era in football here in Philadelphia. Every one of those years, Andy Reid has been tied at the hip with one Donovan Jamal McNabb.
Last season, McNabb endured one of his tougher seasons. He was slow to return to form after ACL surgery and offseason rehab during a year where he endured his first threat on the depth chart since he arrived in 1999 in the form of 2007 2nd round pick QB Kevin Kolb. McNabb also missed two games due to a sprained ankle and a bad thumb. Sprinkle in last season's injury woes to those of 2002 (broken leg), 2005 (sports hernia), and 2006 (torn ACL) in addition to a bright eyed new QB on the roster and it gets people whispering.
Will this be the last year of the Reid-McNabb partnership?
The Eagles enter this season in one of the toughest divisions in the NFL and if they are going to be successful, they are going to have to overcome playing the Super Bowl champions and the team everyone is predicting to go to the Super Bowl (the hated Cowboys) a total of 4 times.
They made a couple of acquisitions during the offseason to bolster the offense, but they never did what the fanbase wanted: a trade for a marquee wide receiver. For their part, the Eagles almost seem defiant in their stance that they indeed added playmakers, in signing CB Asante Samuel and DE Chris Clemons to contracts to help the defense to get back to it's glory from the NFC Championship years.
Samuel and Clemons aside, the Eagles seem to be counting on one big addition this year: a healthy Donovan McNabb.
Positional Breakdown
QB: As previously stated, the Eagles' offensive hopes are more or less pinned to a healthy and successful season from starting QB Donovan McNabb. The Eagles felt confidence enough in QB-in-waiting Kevin Kolb to make him the #2 QB this year. While Kolb did look better than his rookie year in preseason action, I don't think anyone believes he's quite ready for the starting job. AJ Feeley returns as the 3rd stringer and probably still pulls prime time poon from the Olde City bars.
RB: The only injury that might come close to crippling the Eagles offense as much as losing McNabb would be to lose Brian Westbrook for an extended period of time. Westbrook was rewarded with a re-structured contract that helped in making Westbrook somewhat whole financially for being one of the top 3 or 4 backs in the league in the past 3 years.
The Eagles also added Lorenzo Booker into the mix from Miami in a draft day trade in a move that should allow the team to spell Westbrook every now and again. And yes, Correll Buckhalter is still around. In a slightly dubious move, the team is attempting to turn Tony Hunt into a fullback. In fairness, however, the Eagles haven't had a significant fullback in their offense since Jon Ritchie.
WR/TE: A lot of contention here. Given that this team passed the ball 60% of the time last year, one would think that the team would invest time and energy into either acquiring an elite receiver or developing one on their own. They have been either unsuccessful in attempting the former (they flirted with Randy Moss during his contract negotiations with the Pats) and have been historically unable to do the latter.
One could make the case that Reggie Brown went backwards last year, and despite Kevin Curtis' good numbers, he is probably better suited lining up in the slot. No matter what you think of Curtis' work, you won't even have Curtis to kick around in the immediate future, as he will be out with a sports hernia (seemingly, the injury of choice for the Eagles). Couple this with Brown fighting a bad hamstring, and this leaves the Eagles incredibly thin at WR as they enter the season.
Enter rookie DeSean Jackson, whom many believed would not make an impact at receiver his rookie year. Now, with the dearth of good health at the WR position, there is no choice but to rely on him. The Eagles will need Jackson to carry his preseason success (16 rec., 189 yds) into the regular season for the passing game to be successful. Hank Baskett and Greg Lewis will be around for another year, showing off their utter mediocrity.
Underacheiving TE LJ Smith (yeah, I said it) will be back this year, in a contract year, fully healed from a sports hernia that hindered him last season. He has looked downright spry in preseason action and I look to him fulfilling his potential this season. Brent Celek will look to spell Smith and looks to be a good prospect.
OL: Only one of two ways for the tackles on this unit to go. They will either be praised for their continuity if they are good or they will be criticized for their age if they are bad. Tra Thomas (yes, he's Tra again; he confused too many people changing his name to "William Thomas") and Jon Runyan are back for another season at the tackle positions. It was probably hoped by now that Winston Justice would provide a credible challenge at either of these positions, but he has been unable to do so and you wonder if he'll ever shake off the effects of the "Osi Umenyioura Game" last year, where Umenyioura had 6 sacks, a few while Justice was (attempting to) block him.
It was an eventful offseason for All-Pro guard Shawn Andrews, who publicly battled depression and missed time at camp. It is thought that this should not affect Andrews' play, but that remains to be seen. Todd Herremans is probably better suited to tackle than guard. Max Jean Gilles is probably ready to start in one of the guard positions if needed.
DL: The DTs, Mike Patterson and Broderick Bunkley, were solid, if unspectacular last season. Look for Bunkley to build on his sophmore season, where he seemed to finally "get it".
FA acquisition Dan Klecko, rookie Trevor Laws, and veteran Darren Howard round out the DT rotation.
LB: In my opinion, there is some misplaced optimism about this group. MLB Stew Bradley parlayed two starts in his rookie year into a starting job on the team. Not only is he starting, but he's calling defensive signals. You wonder if it's too much for the 2nd year guy out of Nebraska.
And are we really ready to consider Chris Gocong a success? Gocong had a passable year last year, but certainly not world beating. I think Gocong was just stunned to be on the field and healthy.
The only sure thing on this unit is the move of Omar Gaither from the middle to the weak side, where he can use his speed a bit more than he could at MLB, where he was undersized.
DB: This is probably the strength of the defense. When the QB called for the organization to sign some playmakers, I don't think the signing of CB Asante Samuel to a 6-year deal was quite what DMac had in mind. You would think that this signing would make the oft-injured Lito Sheppard expendable in trade to shore up another area of weakness on the team or would perhaps allow the team to facilitate a move of the physical Sheldon Brown to safety, but apparently, the game plan is that Samuel and Brown are the starters and Sheppard is the nickel corner.
Making things even more complicated is the fact that Sheppard was displeased with his contract status BEFORE the Eagles made the move to acquire Samuel. Now that he has not been traded to a team willing to re-do his deal AND been displaced from his starting job, he and his agent Drew Rosenhaus have taken to carping either directly to the press or via YouTube as witnessed below:
It would probably behoove Sheppard to play out the season and see how things work out, but with the influence of Drew Rosenhaus, this situation could become toxic in short order. Note that Rosenhaus, only recently hired by Sheppard, only gets paid when his client gets a new deal.
The safety position is one that could use a bounce back year. Brian Dawkins' 2007 season began in personal turmoil, with Dawkins dealing with complications over the birth of his twin daughters. He also battled age and a variety of injuries causing BDawk to miss 6 games. He did not seem himself last year even when he did play, but with Dawkins' daughters' problems behind him and a new year to begin with a relative clean slate, health-wise, look for Weapon X to make a comeback this year.
When Dawkins was unavailable last year, Quentin Mikell took his spot and performed reasonably well. Mikell has been around seemingly forever and he'll slide over to the strong safety position this season, that was held down by a combination of Sean Considine and JR Reed last season. Both Considine and Reed will be backing up this year, which is a far more appropriate role for both players.
Special Teams: This area of the team cost the Eagles the first game of the year against the Packers, when various players, miscast as return men, dropped a couple of punts handing the ball (and the win) over to the Packers. The situation with punt returners got so bad they had to re-sign Reno Mahe off of the street just to get a guy that could secure the football on a punt. Mahe, a middling talent in the best of circumstances, has never really been a field changer as a return man.
Enter rookies DeSean Jackson and Quinton Demps; both of whom returned kicks in the preseason. Look for the return game to be energized by the emergence of these two players on special teams.
Kicker David Akers, once considered one of the premier kickers in football, fell off of the map a little bit last year. Akers was still steady from within 40 yards, but outside of 40 yards, his percentage of FGs made fell off from 75% (6 for 8) in 2006 to 20% (2 for 10) in 2007. This could be attributed to a new holder, punter Sav Rocca, but some could be due to a tangible decline. The Eagles did not have a kicker in camp who gave Akers a serious run for his money, so the Eagles are clearly counting on a bounce-back year from Akers.
Punter Sav Rocca performed capably during his inaugural year in American Football, after starring for years in Austrailian Rules football. He needs to be a bit more consistent, but otherwise, he seems to have a real strong leg.
Coaching: I'll be the first to admit it; I'm not an Andy Reid fan. I know he's the most successful coach (in terms of wins) in the history of the Eagles, but his recent inability to incorporate better talent in the draft and his stubbornness with respect to the offensive play calling make me want to wretch. As de-facto GM of the team, he seems stubborn with respect to his ideas on his "system" being so good, it seems he believes he can just plug any player into his vaunted "system" and they should suceed.
As an offensive coach, his predilection towards the forward pass seemed to cool down last year, but the Eagles still pass the ball around 60 percent of the time. I'd personally like to see more balance in the offense. And before you remind me that Marty Mornhinweg is the offensive coordinator on this team and needs to shoulder that blame, please hold your breath. Andy Reid still calls plays occasionally and if you think he doesn't have significant input into the offensive game plan, you're kidding yourself.
Defensive coordinator Jim Johnson is still a pretty good coach. Not nearly enough is made of the fact that his disciple Steve Spagnuolo went on to be the defensive coordinator of the Giants and won the Super Bowl using most of Jim Johnson's blueprints (but with better personnel).
The special teams have fallen off under coach Rory Segrest, but that has as much to do with personnel as it does with anything else. Segrest suffers from comparison with former Eagle special teams coach John Harbaugh, whose special teams always were highly ranked and contributed regularly to the success of the team those years where the Eagles were going to the NFC Championship with regularity.
Schedule: The schedule this year is pretty much middle of the road. The average 2007 winning percentage of the teams they are playing this year was about .520, good for 15th in the league in terms of toughest schedules.
Outlook and Prediction: The Eagles have tough September matchups against Pittsburgh, Dallas, and Chicago. October brings the bye week and 3 weaker opponents (Washington, SF, and Atlanta). By the end of October, the Eagles should be no worse than 5 - 2.
November will be their toughest month of the year, with having to travel to Seattle and back-to-back road matchups against Cincinnati and Baltimore. Mix in a home games against the Champion Giants and the high powered offense of Arizona. I don't think it's unreasonable for this team to be 7 - 5 after this stretch of matchups.
December brings matchups against each of their NFC East opponents and the Cleveland Browns. These matchups feel like a split to me.
2008 Prediction: 9 - 7 and a Wild Card playoff berth.
The Phils pulled out a 5 - 4 win over the Washington Nationals last night on the strength of a Jayson Werth home run in the bottom of the 8th inning. The homer capped a comeback for the Phils, who were down in the game 4 - 1 after the 4th inning.
In a purely unscientific guess as to the ratio of cheers and boos when Rollins first came to bat in the first inning, I'd have to guess it was about 60 or 70 percent booing, with the rest of the folks cheering.
Let there be no doubt, however, that in the 5th inning, when Rollins hit into a rally killing 4-6-3 double play, the natives were pissed and reacted accordingly and loudly. There was no mixture for that particular slice of fan reaction; the Phils had just scored on a sacrifice fly from the bat of Geoff Jenkins and had just turned the lineup over, when Rollins (batting left) rolled over on an 0-1 pitch.
The crowd did give Jimmy a nice hand when he smoked a 3-2 pitch from Steve Shell for an apparent home run, only to have the wind knock the ball down for a long, loud out.
In non-JRoll news from the game, Joe Blanton pitched 5 innings and seemed to labor. He seemed to be high in the zone and fortunately, the wind kept balls in the park last night, or else the score might have been higher for both sides. Blanton gave up all 4 runs and struck out 3. He gave way to Chad Durbin and Ryan Madson, who kept the Nats at bay and Brad Lidge came in to nail down save number 31.
The series continues tonite with Brett Myers facing Collin Balester. However, I suspect that the focus will continue to be on how the crowd reacts to Jimmy Rollins. I suspect that the vitriol will subside as the days go by, but this self-inflicted wound will heal much quicker if Rollins creates the kind of offensive wave we all know he's capable of.
Notes:
- Greg Dobbs and Chris Coste accounted for the other Phils RBIs.
- Mike Missannelli had two interesting guests in the past few days weigh in on the Rollins situation. Both have had unique relationships with the Philadelphia sports fans over the years. Former Phil player and manager Larry Bowa weighed in, and I'm paraphrasing here, saying that playing in the Northeast can come with a bit of fan negativity. Charles Barkley weighed in with a very similar sentiments (audio link not up on 950's website....I'll post it if it goes up).
- The Phillies managed to remain in 1st place after the weekend, taking 2 of 3 from the Pittsburgh Pirates. This series was, of course, on the heels of dropping 2 of 3 at home to the Florida Marlins. Sandwiched in with all of this was the embarassment of getting shut out at home for 2 straight games (Thursday 8/7 vs. Florida and Friday 8/8 vs. Pittsburgh).
Since May, I believe watching the Phillies offense has been added in the latest editions of the KUBARK manuals. Since the Phils, as a team, hit .273 in May, they've hit .232 in June, .270 in July, and so far in August, they are hitting an NL low of .211. They are as consistent as a ferret addicted to meth. That they are in first place speaks as much of how lousy the NL East is as much as it does about the Phillies.
The Eagles
- Tough to pull out any one thing you can take from the Eagles' 16 - 10 preseason loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers from last Friday. Donovan McNabb looked confident in the pocket and DeSean Jackson caught 5 passes. The first team defense, however, got pushed around a little bit. That said, these teams are slated to play each other in the regular season during Week 3, so it wasn't as if either team was going to show much in the way of scheme.
- Nice weekend down the shore until the drive home yesterday. Coming home down the Atlantic City Expressway, I encountered marble-sized hail as I was driving through Hammonton. I cut through Hammonton, because the Expressway began backing up due to the inclement weather and the large volume of cars slowing down. The rain and sleet had been coming down so forcefully, there were downed branches from some of the trees lining Route 54.
It's funny, but this time of year, there is alot of back and forth about the NFL draft such that some folks like it (like me) and some folks don't (like Michael Wilbon).
The NFL draft is when your team shows their hand as to their eventual strategic direction as a franchise, so I question your NFL fanhood if you're not into the NFL draft on some level.
That said, I'm not Ron Jaworski or even his lesser known cousin, Wasyl Jaworski. I don't have some draft board with names of players and teams. I don't watch miles of tape and hunker down in the warroom with Ray Didinger furiously scribbling notes (although it sounds like a good gig if you can get it).
No, I pretty much rely on the hours and hours I sit on my fat ass, drink beer, and watch college football during the season and a fairly obsessive amount of thinking about NFL football. Cliche alert: the NFL is now a year round sport. When is the first Iggle OTA (if you don't know the acronym, you ain't a fan)?
My shot at prognistication will proceed as follows: First, what I would do if I were the Eagles' GM and then, what the Eagles will probably end up doing.
What I would do:
1.) Trade Lito Sheppard and a draft pick for a front line receiver. I know I'm not alone here. There are several either disgruntled receivers (Ocho Cinco or Anquan Boldin) or receivers for whom it may be best to just move on because of a new kid in town (Detroit's Roy Williams). Take Lito and get one of these three receivers and we're pretty much back in the NFC East picture. Somehow, you need to counteract the Dallas acquisition of Pacman Jones. Throw in a pick as well if you have to. To be told by Eagles management that this group of receivers is championship calibre is insulting.
Furthermore, if we're seeing this year as Donovan McNabb's last year as an Eagle (highly probable), they MUST get an elite receiver to play with or I believe they're setting him up for failure. Unless that's the goal or something.
2.) With the 19th pick......I'd take either Miami's Kenny Phillips or find a way to get Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie. Both would fill a big need for the Eagles, defensively. Phillips would become your eventual Brian Dawkins replacement (although no one can truly replace Dawk....a HOFer in my book) and Rodgers-Cromartie would be the young, up-and-coming future shutdown CB, in addition to solving your problems in the shortterm in the return game. Either of these moves fit short to near term needs the Eagles will need to address to ensure success.
2.) Take some of the surplus draft picks they get from the Lito Sheppard deal and move up and get one of the top offensive linemen. My guess? Ryan Clady from Boise State. Face it; this draft has a ton of linemen and if we know anything about Big Red, he loves him some offensive linemen (Max Jean-Gilles, Winston Justice, Todd Herremans, Scott Young, Shawn Andrews, and I could go on and on).
3.) The Eagles, throwing a bone to the fans, will draft this year's Jason Avant or Hank Baskett, whoever that happens to be.
Other predictions, both for some PSU guys and prominent college players:
- Dan Connor will slip to the late 2nd, early 3rd round. He's not as good as Poszluzny was, and Poz was an early 2nd rounder.
- Justin King will go much earlier than expected, making people like me who think he should come back to PSU for his senior season look stupid....I'd even say 2nd round. For the record, I can see King being a pretty good pro, despite never fulfilling some of the promise at PSU.
- Matt Ryan will end up in Atlanta and my head will explode when the Cowboys find a way to end up with Darren McFadden.
