Monday Morning Quick Thoughts

A few things I want to get up here before Bounty's hangover:

This is ridiculous, and if it were true, grounds for firing the entire coaching staff.  The importance of that game yesterday, for the Eagles' playoff chances, can not be overstated.  The idea that you would hold anything back "because you might lose" is absurd.

Also, this:

But it does seem as if the idea was to try to win this game without giving away too much. As late as Friday, Michael Vick was listed as probable, and practicing as if he would play. Then he was designated as the inactive third quarterback even though, according to Reid, he didn't have a physical setback with his bruised thigh.

"I had a couple things for him this week, and I just pulled back there at the end," Reid said.

That sounds very much like a man who decided not to use all of the weapons at his disposal.

You know what it kind of sounds like to me?  Like Vick hasn't really done that much for the offense this year, they don't need him as much now that they have a fully-staffed backfield, and while you can screw around in the regular season with emergency quarterbacks and all that, when the really important games start, you darn well better have Kevin Kolb be the one warming up after Dallas' defensive line picks up MJG and drops him on McNabb.

I'm also sick of this crap from McDermott:

"I'd rather not get into what the game plan was, because we have to play them again next week," McDermott said. "You do have to look at the big picture. . . . There was a chance we could face this team again."

He pulled the same act after the Saints game.  It's not like, "Yeah, we really need to generate some more pressure," is going to help Garrett all that much.

Also, maybe have a game plan first, then worry about protecting it.

Why I didn't blast the offense yesterday.  A few people in the comments asked why I was all over the defense, and less so on the offense.  The difference is where I felt the fault lay in each case.

On defense, it was just a terrible effort from top to bottom (in the first half).  The tackling sucked, the getting-off-blocks sucked, the coverage sucked, everything sucked.  The biggest thing, though, was that the plan sucked.  And it sucked in a way we've seen it suck a couple other times this year -- with the lesson not getting through.

That sucked.

On the offensive side, I honestly didn't think things were that bad.  Yes, McNabb and his receivers missed a ton of chances.  I liked Sheridan's description of same:

The passing game was in that special groove where either Donovan McNabb misses the receiver or, when the pass is right on the money, the receiver drops it.

But guys were open.  And running lanes were there.  That, to me, is less depressing than, say, the Panthers' loss a few years back, where our offense was effectively neutered. 

So what could I say?  "Stop missing passes, Don"?  Just make the plays next week that you missed this week.  Then you'll be fine.

Of course, here's what McD was actually thinking.  From Trotter:

"They came out fast running the ball on us," said Trotter, whose unit was gashed for a season-high 179 yards. "This is playoff football. When you're playing playoff football, teams want to come out and establish the run.

"They're not just going to let us tee off and blitz [quarterback Tony] Romo. They did exactly what I expected, and we've just got to do a better of not letting it happen when we come back here next week."

This, I believe, is why McD sometimes goes into his shell.  He knows he has issues in his run defense and he's afraid that blitzing too much will get him gashed.  I'm not saying there's not some validity to his argument.

The problem is that this defense plays much better downhill.  You can scream 'til you're blue in the face about the need for these guys to do a better job getting off blocks ... but that doesn't mean they're just going to magically get better at getting off blocks. 

There's a reason those damn draw plays work so well against us, and it's not because our guys are flying upfield and opening up running lanes.  It's because we're the small, quick defense, and if the offense just tees off on us, we struggle to make plays.

Funniest thing I read this morning:

Why did the Eagles continually give tight end Jason Witten a clean release off the line of scrimmage? After giving up 179 rushing yards to the Cowboys, isn't it time for defensive coordinator Sean McDermott to think about putting Chris Gocong back on the field?

Chris Gocong, the cause of, and solution to, all of life's problems.

Oh, and he may be right.  Although personally I want to see a bit more Tracy White, on the other side.

Lost in the crap, a few guys actually played pretty well yesterday.  Brent Celek, in particular, was great in the passing game.  I look forward to Lawlor's review to hear about his performance blocking.

And here I thought I needed to point out who the actual enemy was.  Idiot Dallas fans in the comments.  Generally I just ban the jerks, but the evisceration in response was so thorough, I left them up there.  Probably a trend that won't continue.