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 :)

Comments

[Andrew]

"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 made the very same mistake in the first Giants game last year, crossing the LOS while throwing to an open Reggie Brown in the endzone, helping us on our way to a 1-3 start.

[Jason]

I thought Herremans held his own at left tackle, particularly going up against Peppers. Of course, there's no way to know at this point if it's the Peppers of last year or the year before.

I also thought the coverage units improved as well, though there were still several missed tackles.

Jackson looked good, but I'm a little concerned about him getting beat up at this point. I'm nervously watching to see how much of a pounding he can take. He seemed to attack the punt coverage a little better as the game went on; he was horrible on his first couple returns.

Birds really need to seriously start thinking about Akers replacement. Even though it was a 45-yard kick in the rain, his accuracy seems to keep dropping off.

Disappointed in Baskett's concentration last night. He could be another training camp mirage.

[Me]

What first Giants game last year? I don't remember any such game.

[Michael]

You know, just from memory, I actually think McNabb had a good game, despite a terrible-looking stat sheet. Here's what I'm hoping to see from McNabb in the preseason (roughly in order of preference):

1. Accuracy on crossing routes and swing passes. CHECK. This has always been his biggest weakness. He is bizarrely more accurate throwing 40 yards than throwing 15. I think he has trouble judging how much to lead guys moving across his field of vision (he's good at judging the lead on guys running away from him). But he wasn't throwing those balls 2 yards behind his receivers feet last night.

2. Moving well. CHECK. This is classic McNabb. He avoids the rush, buys time, and gets his guys open by forcing linebackers and safeties to account for the fact that he might run. I also agree that he doesn't take that illegal forward pass penalty during the season -- he just takes the first down and runs out of bounds. He's trying to practice getting his receivers open and hitting them, which worked.

I would add that I thought he threw the ball well (in the rain no less), made good decisions and spread it around. I love that he seems to trust DJax to be open and catch the ball. He is looking Jackson's way a lot.

If you take out the ridiculous number of drops and he hits DJax on the deep ball, then we're having another conversation about McNabb looking great.

I think the DJax miss was about timing with a new receiver. Donovan doesn't know exactly how fast DJax is or isn't yet on that fly route, but he will in a few games. Also, I saw Jackson slow up a touch as he looked back for the ball (he already had two steps on his man). Remember, he's used to outrunning a weak-armed QB at Cal. He needs to adjust to the idea that Donovan can throw 60 yards on a rope and keep the burners on.

[Eric]

Derek, I got this from the play by play on ESPN.

3rd and 14 at NYG 20 (2:31) (No Huddle, Shotgun) D.McNabb scrambles right end to NYG 19 for 1 yard. D.McNabb pass deep right to R.Brown for 19 yards, TOUCHDOWN NULLIFIED by Penalty. 3 16
PENALTY on PHI-D.McNabb, Illegal Forward Pass, 5 yards, enforced at NYG 19.

[Me]

Nope, sorry. Don't remember that game at all. Pretty sure the Eagles only played the Giants once last year.

Weird, since they're in the division and all.

[Eric]

Haha. I thought you were trying to say you don't remember the play from that game, but now that I re-read what you wrote, I get you. I shouldn't read too fast.

[Eric]

p.s. pics of the Eagles' cheerleaders up from last night. They look pretty good.

[Ajay]

I'd agree with Michael's comments on McNabb. Admittedly, by the time he made that play, I was already somewhat irked by the poor kickoff returns, drops and the fake field goal try. However, I did think McNabb looked good. Save for a couple errant passes (one of which, I'd have to go back and look at the dvr to figure out where, to Greg Lewis, was almost intercepted), I thought he looked good. On the illegal pass, despite the fact that the play was illegal, I was happy that he was still looking downfield. I think he knew where the down marker was, and would've run for it if it mattered.

Who else is working out at KR? Demps?

P.S. Derek - for the video rewinds - how do you get the video off your DVR (i.e. usb/firewire or something)?

[Me]

Sadly, no, it's far more Rube Goldberg than that. Three different software programs are involved, and that's if I don't do any editing.

[Andrew2]

Can't we just put JR Reed back in at KR? He's not going to make any amazing moves, but he can CATCH the ball and run straight ahead.

[BFH]

"Can't we just put JR Reed back in at KR? He's not going to make any amazing moves, but he can CATCH the ball and run straight ahead."

The mere fact that anyone is suggesting this, after two preseason games... ouch.

Rory Segrest is going to need to perform miracles to have a job with this organization next year.

And finally... just want to point out that, right now, you could put Josh Cribbs back there and it wouldn't matter. These units can't block or tackle. It's a freaking disaster.

[BossHotSauce]

I know I'm not alone, but seriously... what are they going to do about special teams? The kick coverage was slightly better last night, but we can't block anyone on punt returns and Booker has me flashing back the Packers game last year. That loss has given me Special Teams PTSD. I didn't trust a punt return all last season -- now I'm starting to get that way about kickoffs.