Zagging the Ziggs

A few things I'm not seeing mentioned in most of the coverage today:

Lito Sheppard really blew that free shot on Bulger he had in the third quarter.  It didn't matter, because Klecko got him a second later, but that was a gift sack he missed.

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McNabb and Kolb completed passes to eight players yesterday.  None of them were named Lorenzo Booker.  The former Dolphin also rushed five times for nine yards.  I am, like the rest of the town, slightly over-excited about DeSean Jackson, but what has happened to our other big offensive pickup?

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Domo nitpicks McNabb a bit:

"I know I'm being picky here considering that he threw three TD passes and finished with a 131.0 passer rating, but McNabb should have run the ball in for a touchdown on that third-and-goal play from the Rams' 5 late in the third quarter rather than force the ball to covered tight end L.J. Smith. McNabb would have had an easy touchdown." 

That's all likely true, but if he had done it, he would have taken a heck of a shot from a couple of linebackers. 

McNabb seems to be playing a different game this year with his body.  He's getting rid of the ball in the pocket rather than hanging on forever to make a play, he's trying to avoid the huge hits, and he's not getting downfield to get knocked around. 

The thing is, when it's the preseason or the team wins 38-3, nobody minds this.  But at some point this year, McNabb is going to do one of these things in a situation where a different choice might be important.  It will be critical at that moment to remember that keeping McNabb healthy is one of a handful of keys for this being a Super Bowl season.

The guy hasn't lost his nerve.  He's just trying to keep his body in one piece so he's there for his teammates (and us) in January.  (You may want to print this part out and save it for later.)

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The coverage on the punts was great yesterday, but I think the key might be that Sav has really figured things out.  You don't have multiple guys down the field, turned around looking to catch the ball unless you're putting in some serious hang time.  I'll need to put a stopwatch on him later to see, but just going from the gut, those seemed like towering punts. 

Anyone who was there who can comment on that?

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Westbrook only got credit for one fumble, officially, but it looked like he lost the handle on back-to-back plays out there.  I realize you have to keep the big guy healthy, but that's the problem with so little prep time in preseason.  Luckily it didn't burn them.

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Maybe the wind was blowing the wrong way, but does anyone else think the Eagles didn't put Akers out there to try a 58-yard field goal at the end of the first half mostly because they didn't want him to get the heat from the fans for missing what would admittedly have been a very, very long attempt?

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The refs seemed to be mostly a non-factor yesterday, but one of the biggest improvements we saw from the Eagles was their four penalties for only 41 yards.  Both are comfortably below last year's pace.

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Stewart Bradley's sack got the Eagles' linebackers halfway to the total number they managed last year (Gocong's '07 sack came as a rush end).

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Speaking of Bradley, he and Quintin Mikell accounted for 15 tackles.  The rest of the team had 14 combined.  I don't even know how that's possible.

Comments

[Tracer Bullet]

Geez, talk about searching the silver lining for a dark cloud. With a 30+ point lead, I don't want McNabb running anywhere. I don't even want him jogging to the bench where he could trip over the chains.

[BFH]

I continue to be impressed by Mikell. He can get beat in coverage, but the guy is a tackling machine. And he continues to force fumbles.

The dropoff from him to the next SS is huge, he's a guy I want to see there every week.

[bsencore]

That Lito miss was priceless. Yeah ok, Mr. "I'm a starter." JJ gift-wrapped you a blind side bit of Philly fans' hearts and you blew it completely.

I was surprised just how good the Eagles D looked. I mean Donovan has done this before and St. Louis's offense was bad, but the defense was dominant. The secondary looked great, from the Sheldon Brown hit to the multiple almost-interceptions by Samuel Dawkins to the Mikell tackles. The defensive line was ok, and the linebackers were fantastic- especially Bradley in the middle. He was like Trot when the man could run.

[Colin_K]

I felt the same way about that McNabb non-run...is it just me or does anyone else get a queasy feeling in their stomach every time DMac runs out of the pocket. Get rid of ball big guy!
Great game all around, a win is a win is a win.
Guys who impressed me:
Offensive Line - Don't care who they were playing, they kept McNabb's shirt clean. Not like they were scrubs on the other side of the ball. You had Little and C. Long on the ends and Carriker and Glover in the middle...Rams' last two 1st round picks and two pro-bowlers.
DeSean - no explanation necessary, what was that about the pre-season having a different speed?
McNabb - God he is good when he is 100%.
Agreed also about the penalties...I think that should be a close 3rd right behind red zone efficiency and forcing turnovers as the big keys to this season.

[Eagles Fan in San Fran]

Yea, McNabb was going to get creamed on that play and made the right choice in bee-lining it out-of-bounds. He's definitely lost a step speed-wise - I don't expect to see him run very often any more unless he absolutely has to or he has a wide open space in front.

One columnist brought up a point that also hit me last night - might this offensive explosion just be like the "Detroit mirage" last year where guys (mainly Curtis) were WIDE open due to the ineptitude of opponent's defense. Yea, there was some of that yesterday, but if you go back to the highlights (NFL.com gives nice relatively long 4-minute video wrap-ups of each game), what struck me was the tough catches Jackson made. I'm now officially sold on this guy and he just might (fingers crosssed) be the next Steve Smith with a little time (yea, he looked that good). At this point, however, if he can just make a Marques Colston-type impact as a rookie, we'll be in great shape.

Last point on Jackson - yea, he's an electrifying punt returner, but given that he's now obviously going to play a lot on offense, should AR dial him back a bit on the punt returns to save his body? (He did take a couple of good hits on the returns yesterday.) Demps looks like a more than adequate fill-in at this point. Just a thought.

[Derek]

No way. The motto this year is balls out. You can tell by the playcalling, the way Reid is getting on guys, and what he's saying to the media that Reid is going to keep the accelerator floored this season.

With that in mind, it's way too early to start thinking about wrapping DeSean in bubble wrap.

[Eagles Fan in San Fran]

Just caught something on PFT:
Donte Stallworth pulled his groin muscle in warmups (surprise, surprise) and didn't play vs the Cowboys yesterday. A quote from Braylon Edwards:
"The game plan changed when we knew Donte wasn't playing," said Edwards. "Once he wasn't playing, they rolled coverages over to me more. But we still have to execute. Donte's a good player and he definitely could've helped us out, but as a whole, we still played bad."

The article also includes this tid-bit:
"Edwards, who missed the final three preseason games after teammate Donte Stallworth spiked his shoeless foot Aug. 9,"

WOW, letting Donte go really doesn't look so bad now!

And speaking of ex-Eagles, Takeo Spikes made a key mistake for the Niners in their loss yesterday. The Cardinals pooch-kicked to him on a kick-off and he fumbled the ball right to them! He did play some LB for San Fran, recording 4 tackles.

[GFF]

Maybe McNabb's greatest virtue has been not throwing many A.J.-style interceptions. The downside to that has been that he tends to throw only to open receivers rather than laying it up there for a receiver to make a play. But didn't it seem a little different with Jackson? Like McNabb might lay it up there with confidence that Jackson can get it?

[Andrew2]

I noticed that about McNabb, too. That first catch by Jackson was impressive mostly because he was well covered -- McNabb put it up there anyway and Jackson caught it. That's a big difference from the Lions game last year, where guys were wide open all over the place.

[Eric]

Just remember that Jackson had a lot of punt returns because they punted 10 times. You won't see that many punts in most games. And Reid was sitting him for a play or two after each punt return.

[Eagles Fan in San Fran]

From Brookover's "Eagles Notes" today:
Standing tall
Quarterback Donovan McNabb said he couldn't remember the last time he wasn't sacked in a game and there's a good reason why. It had been a long time.
If you discount games against Miami in 2007 and Tennessee in 2006 when he left with first-half injuries and a 2004 game against St. Louis when he left after one series, the last time McNabb went through an entire game without being sacked was the final game of the 2003 season at Washington. It was only the sixth time in his career that he was not sacked.

WOW! I've harped on his sacks/game figure - which might be the highest in NFL history outside a Bledsoe or a Testaverde - so I shouldn't be that surprised, but still: 119 regular-season games under his belt and just 6 not-sacked games! That's a ton of weekly punishment - amazing that he's been able to do what he's done in his career.