Early Thoughts on the KC Game

Friday night's game at Kansas City was a chance for the Eagles to calm some nerves and solve some problems.  The Eagles decided to go wildcat on us and do just the opposite of what we wanted.  Our 2 best players left with injury.  Trent Cole has an ankle injury and DeSean Jackson is dealing with an upper back problem.  The offense struggled.  This time they didn't wait to get to the Red Zone.  They looked sluggish all over.  The blocking was very up and down.  We did fine unless the Chiefs blitzed, which unfortunately they did a lot.  There were defenders running free way too often.  Kevin Kolb ran the equivalent of 3 miles, most of it from sideline to sideline.  Not good. 

The defense played pretty well.  They made a couple of costly mistakes, but overall had a good game.  Special Teams was up and down.  The big bright spot for the game was the play of the rookie class.  From Brandon Graham to Mike Kafka to Kurt Coleman, we got good play from a lot of rookies. 

Quick Thoughts

* The offense is out of sync right now.  Gameplanning will make a difference, but something just isn't clicking.  Jeremy Maclin and Kolb don't have the same rapport that Kolb and DJax do.  How is Brent Celek covered on every pass play now?  I think everyone has a share of the blame.  The O-line deserves a lot of focus, but the rest of the offense is at fault as well.  This is worrisome after 3 weeks of preseason football.  Any chance Aaron Rodgers will sit out the opener to protest the overly harsh prosecution of Lindsay Lohan? 

* I was happy to see Clay Harbor catch a couple of passes.  I feel better now.  I'm not sure he's ready to be our #2 TE, but he's headed in that direction.

* Mike Kafka likes the 2-minute offense.  He was good in those situations at NW.  He led the winning drive in the Shrine Game.  Tonight he comes alive late in the game and leads us down the field for the winning TD. 

* Riley Cooper was terrific on the final drive.  Throw that guy the ball more often. 

* Mike Bell is a tough, physical runner.  He knocked a Chiefs LB out of the game with a neck injury.  Bell was rusty, but you can see his potential on a play like that.  When is the last time we had a RB who could inflict that kind of punishment?  (Beside what Tony Hunt did to your eyes)

* Austin Howard gave up another sack.  We all love his potential, but Austin is a project.  He needs work. 

* Ernie Sims led the team with 5 total tackles.  His speed prevented a breakaway run by Jamaal Charles. 

* Brandon Graham looked like he got good pressure a few times.  I was really impressed with his speed in pursuing plays.  He chased a RB out of bounds on the far sideline.  That's speed and hustle. 

* Our pass rush did a good job.  Matt Cassel was under pressure a lot.  We only had 1 sack in the game, but we got into the backfield quite a bit and disrupted their offense. 

* Trevard Lindley played some with the starters at RCB.  He picked off a pass.  The ball was bobbled by the receiver and then deflected into the air.  Trevard stayed calm and made the catch.  Well done. 

* Chad Hall looks like Practice Squad material right now.  A poor showing next week could cost him that job.  He'll play a lot Thursday and needs to give the coaches some reason to keep him. 

* Nate Allen had another solid showing.  He blitzed again and just missed a sack.  He did hit the QB and cause an incompletion. 

* Jamar Chaney played better than last week.  I'm still not sure he's got a roster spot quite yet. 

* Quintin Demps had one long KOR and almost busted another one.  He needs to have that job during the season.  

* That Eric Berry guy is kinda talented. 

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UPDATE:  This is a good play to keep all the comments, so I'm just going to add my thoughts at the bottom.

• Without DeSean, we're just an ordinary offense.  He's the new Westbrook.
• The "Maclin as #1 WR" folks are sort of staring at the ground now, right?  Right?
• Stewart Bradley was worth at least two plays over a replacement-level Eagles MIKE in this game.  He had the early pass break-up in man coverage against a tight end and then that ridiculous play in the backfield on the little sprint draw.  I think he was blitzing, but he still made up a lot of ground really quickly.
• We're going to see more disruption from the starting DTs this year. Well, one of them anyway.  Bunkley was allowed to penetrate multiple times this game, and moved around with a fair number of slants and stunts.
• The biggest reason I don't like the "contact to a QB's head rule" is that it's called so inconsistently.  The first time Kolb got sacked, he got hit in the head by the second guy on the pile.  No call.
• Although missed calls were a bit of a theme last night.  It wasn't so much a poorly officiated game as it was a non-officiated game.
• Just a lot of sloppiness.  On the McCoy wildcat play, the snap almost hit Avant because they didn't wait for him to get across the formation.
• Todd Herremans makes plays.
• We pulled a hockey substitution with our defensive line in the second quarter.  We might have needed another one on that long drive KC sustained.  Our big guys got tired.  They're not used to playing this long yet.
• The Eagles have clearly worked on swarming WR screens.
• You can block Sims with a lineman or big TE.  FBs don't seem to bother him at all.
• That penalty was just Asante's way of saying he doesn't feel like blocking on a punt.
• KC punter Dustin Colquitt stole Akers' double sky point.
• Kolb took a "McNabb sack" in this game, where he ran out of bounds behind the LoS, rather than just calmly throwing the ball away.
• That INT to Maclin was a really, really ugly heave.

  - Derek