The Big Decisions

This may come as a bit of a shock, but the Eagles did not lose that game on Saturday.  They lost it in November.  And October.  And September and even August.

Different choices and outcomes earlier in the season would have meant not playing an away game in New Orleans on six days of rest against a team coming off a bye.  The two teams were so close that if you flip those two things around, Philly probably wins.

Reid and the organization deserve a lot of credit for the way this year ended up.  It would take a long time to list all the good decisions they made, from bringing in Garcia to finding Trent Cole in the fifth round last year to latching on to a useful player like JT Thomas.  Maybe if they had won the Super Bowl, we would even be doing that right this moment.  But they didn't, so it's time to look at the big strategic decisions that went wrong this season and that need to be addressed for next year.

1. Early season offensive imbalance.  This is clearly the biggest X's and O's mistake of the season.  At least the loss to the Giants does not happen if the Eagles had actually focused on grinding the clock and running the ball in that first game.  There simply would not have been enough time for the Giants to come all the way back and take the game into overtime, where Jevon Kearse's season would come to an end.  Westbrook was clearly gimpy and needed to be handled a bit early, but the Eagles began the season with six running backs on the roster (Westbrook, Buckhalter, Moats, Mahe, Perry, Tapeh).  Someone could have carried the ball a handful of times.

2. Waiting too long to address the linebacker position.  We know the Eagles' cap philosophy is that linebackers are a "value" position.  On defense, you spend big money on the line and the cornerbacks and you fill in at linebacker with what's left over.  This approach might even have worked, had the Eagles been able to draft as successfully at this position as they have at others during Reid's tenure.  Unfortunately, with Gardner, Caver and now McCoy, that hasn't been the case.  Against the Saints, the Eagles' linebackers were regularly exposed as being not that good against the pass or the run.  Maybe Gocong is the answer at SAM, but if he's not, there's a chance we could be right back in the same position at year from now.  Omar Gaither did come on strong late in the year and might be a player.  Unfortunately, we needed him sooner.

3. Not forcing young players to advance.  I get it, both Moats and Bunkley have issues.  I understand.  But there's no reason either one of those guys should have been so underused this season.  In Moats' case, he could definitely have taken pressure off an injured Westbrook and a recovering Buckhalter early in the season.  Even without NFL-level technique, Bunk is a massive body that should have at least been in the DT rotation, if only to keep the other guys fresh.  The Eagles managed to lose six games this season without him.  Would his playing 10 snaps a game really have cost them a seventh?  And wouldn't some playing time have helped him advance faster than he actually did?  This was a developmental year for a lot of guys, unfortunately, it was a lot of wasted time for these two.

Honorable Mention: Benching Rod Hood.  I don't know what Hood did.  There were all kinds of rumors flying around about something he had said or done in the locker room, but all I know is that last year Hood played like a starting-caliber corner and this year -- post-benching -- he played out the string.  He had the Christian Laettner face going on Saturday, looking like a guy who would have been happier anywhere else on the planet that didn't involve being in an Eagles uniform. 

Honorable Mention #2: Not slipping Sean Considine some designer steroids.  Considine flies around and has great instincts, but he hits like a ton of feathers.  Steroid jokes aside, I hope he is able to bulk up a little bit this off-season.  I like him at the free safety position, but he needs to stop getting run over. 

Comments

[JB]

On Hood. Part of it was probably injury, but Hood just flat out didn't play well all year. Even before the benching he didn't look like the player who filled in so admirably for Lito last year. What's worse, he didn't look like a guy playing his ass off hoping to get a big free agent deal.