The Expectations Trap

I'll be posting tonight so I'm not putting much up today.  Besides, my previews generally suck anyway.  Last year I was either wildly wrong or just not that interesting on far too many Fridays.

I really have to work on that. 

Anyway, I did want to make one point before things kick off tonight.  Now that we've finally had a chance to see the guys this year, a lot of our perceptions have been reshuffled. The McNabb doubters have gone underground for a little while, for example.  And not spending a first-round pick on a wide receiver suddenly isn't looking like too terrible a move. 

The only problem with this is that now our expectations have been set.  So if there's any variance at all with what we saw in the first game, there's a pretty decent chance we might go overboard in the other direction.

Downside things to watch out for:

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

And on the upside:

• Brian Dawkins looking like he actually could beat Shawn Andrews in footrace.
• The starting defense selling out to stop the run early.

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

• Some semblance of a pass rush.
• Asante Samuel leaving the field without a limp.
• Sav Rocca punting with his right foot again (only possible explanation I have).

Comments

[Al Wolff]

It will be interesting to see how all of the WRs taken in the 2nd round this draft, that ones the Eagles passed up on by trading their first round pick, fare on their respectitive teams this year. My hunch is that DeSean Jackson is right up there, and it will be mighty sweet to have two first rounders next year...

[Eagles Fan in San Fran]

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

Special teams indeed being "special".

[Eric]

File this under "you never can really ever predict a player's future", but DeSean was the #1 rated receiver going into college. He didn't have stellar numbers at that position as far as receiving, but I was never big on the Cal QBs either.