More Game Thoughts

You know, it's funny.  I've made the point a million times that fans the last couple of years have been unnecessarily down on McNabb not so much because of what he's done on the field, but because the team as a whole hasn't won enough games.  Our perception of performance is always colored by the actual results.

I've just never thought about making the point in the opposite direction.

Last night's game was terrible.  The special teams were generally abysmal (save for Sav Rocca), the first team offense went from dink-dunk to drop-drop, the team generally seemed to lose its focus after the rain delay, and through three quarters people were saying things like: "There's no way I'm going to be able to check out the Eagles message boards until after our next game." 

But because the 8th team offense finally put some points up in the fourth quarter (aided greatly by a blown coverage and a badly-missed tackle a powerful run by Tony Hunt) and the Eagles "won" a meaningless game against a bad team that has no impact in the standings, we're all about 10 times happier today that we would have been otherwise. 

Me included.

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A good way to remember the early mood is to check out the write-ups by the beat writers who were there.  These guys have to write their stories throughout the game if they have any chance to make their crazy deadlines, so you can see how things progressed.  Take Les Bowen, for example:

LIGHTNING STRUCK much more forcefully and consistently than the Eagles' first-team offense, in the home fans' first preseason glimpse of their 2008 team last night at Lincoln Financial Field.

Normally, you hate to see the starters leave. In this 24-13 victory over the Carolina Panthers, it was a relief, as each first-half Eagles' possession after a 58-minute, first-quarter thunderstorm delay seemed a little more futile than the one before.

...

Donovan McNabb sat down for the evening at halftime with a dreary 11-for-24, 98-yard stat line, spiced by several ugly drops and a dumb decision on his part to throw a third-down pass when he was at least a yard past the line of scrimmage, with open field in front of him and no more than 2 yards to go for the first down.

...

Brian Westbrook gained all of 14 yards on five carries, behind a scrambled offensive line. It's probably time to drop the illusion that the Birds will somehow be OK if right guard Shawn Andrews doesn't shake his bout with depression and return to Pro Bowl form.

There's plenty more in there if you want all the gory details.

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One of the hard parts about evaluating the preseason is that we have no idea how good the opponents are.  Last week, the starting defense got a little run over by Pittsburgh.  This week they looked a lot better.  How much of that is due to the fact that the Steelers are going to be pretty good and the Panthers could legitimately be passing over a top 10 pick to the Eagles next year?

No way of knowing for a few weeks, at least. 

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I actually thought the starting offensive line the Eagles threw out last night did a pretty good job, all things considered.  They weren't flawless, but that would have been a lot to expect, given all the shuffling.

Scott Young, in particular, looked a little quicker than I remembered.  I'll have to watch him again.

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The receivers really let the rain mess with their heads last night.  They were wearing gloves, then they took them off for a series (not coincidentally the one where Curtis and Jackson had back-to-back drops), then they were back on. 

Too much thinking about the rain, not enough thinking about catching the football.

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Let's see how we did with the expectations game:

Downside things to watch out for:

• Donovan looking a little bit more like Donovan and not Super Awesome Man. CHECK
• DeSean Jackson looking like a rookie.  NOPE
• The starting offensive line -- with two backups and another guy out of position -- looking a little ragged. 50-50

And on the upside:

• Brian Dawkins looking like he actually could beat Shawn Andrews in footrace.  INCOMPLETE
• The starting defense selling out to stop the run early.  DIDN'T NEED TO

Things we'd like to see but I'm worried we won't:

• Some semblance of a pass rush. PLEASANT SURPRISE
• Asante Samuel leaving the field without a limp. "TIGHTENED UP DURING THE DELAY"
• Sav Rocca punting with his right foot again (only possible explanation I have).  VERY PLEASANT SURPRISE

Hmmm... not sure how to grade that one. 

What I will say, though, is that I thought about including Booker in the first section, then realized he didn't have that great a game last time around if you factored in special teams.  Well, he went from "not that great" to "seriously, what the hell" pretty quickly in this game.  He probably should have made the list.

Booker appears to be closing in rapidly on the TCD 2008 designation.  We should really have seen that coming.

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Reid had a humdinger of a quote in his post-game press conference:

"We have to cut down on the penalties. It's good that they're happening now, so that we can get them corrected and worked on so that they don't happen during the season."

On second thought, you know what would be even better?  Not having those things happen at all.

Other things that are good to have happening now:

• Dropped balls.
• Terrible kick returns.
• Poor clock management.
• [Gratuitous joke re: close-up shots of a couple cheerleaders who didn't look to be in, er, regular season form redacted so I don't have to sleep on the couch tonight.]

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On that McNabb penalty where he crossed the line of scrimmage, it wasn't that smart a play, but do you really think it's one he makes in the regular season?  I kind of doubt it.  He seems to be treating these preseason games as a chance to work out the kinks, rather than worrying about moving the chains with his feet.

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One last shout-out to Sav.  He really handled the conditions well last night.  Maybe the Eagles should always try to wet down the punting balls before he uses them.

I wonder if he could also give some pointers to the receivers?

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If I were Reggie Brown, I'm not sure I'd make too leisurely a return from that hamstring injury.

Unfortunately, that's probably exactly how he's thinking, which means the training staff needs to be ultra-careful with him to make sure he doesn't push it too hard and end up costing himself some real time this season.

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Finally, I appreciate all the video rewind requests.  Due to recent staffing cutbacks, I may have difficulty addressing all 27 of them, but I'll do my best :)