Iggles Blog - Philadelphia Eagles Blog

WHAM

That, folks, is the sound of the door slamming shut on the Eagles' 2008 season. 

Oh sure, the team will talk a good game this week.  How they're not out of it yet.  How they just need to make a little run.  How anything can happen in the NFL.

Nope.  It's over. 

The wheels are off, the lights are out, it's time to close the book on Kellner.

Andy Reid admitted as much at halftime when he benched Donovan McNabb.  Yeah, McNabb was playing like crap again today.  There's no question. 

However, after Kevin Kolb came in and did his best Mike McMahon impression, it was just as clear that Donovan would have given this team its best chance to win today. 

McNabb's had a hell of a run here.  I doubt his career is even close to over.  But even if he trots back out next week as the starter, his career in Philadelphia is done.  We're just waiting to see what date goes last on the tombstone.

But it's time to find out what Kolb can do.  I doubt he's as bad as he looked today, but he's not getting any better sitting on the bench.  Throw him out there, let him get a taste of those NFC East opponents this year so he's better prepared next year for what's coming.  Find out if he's got it.

It's also time to get all those other young guys into games, starting next week against the Cardinals.  I want to see Booker.  I want to see Demps.  I even, yes, want to see Winston Justice. 

Reid isn't going anywhere, folks, so this isn't the end of the Andy Reid era.  It is, however, the end of the second third McNabb era.  The one that kind of ended up sucking, most of the time. 

I don't blame McNabb.  Those of you who do will probably be a lot less vocal today, after the anointed one came in and looked like crap.  But in the end, it doesn't really matter.

Either way, it's over.  Time for Act IV.

Just Good Enough To Lose

Look, there's a certain nobility to a scrappy bunch of upstarts manning up and playing its guts out against a superior team, only to lose in the end due to a critical flaw they just can't fix. 

Which is fine, except it forces us to concede the following:

• The Eagles aren't as good as the Giants.
• The Eagles do in fact have a critical flaw.
• In the end, the Eagles are just good enough to lose to anybody.

You see something I'm missing?  The Eagles just aren't a complete team.  They can't run the ball.  They don't have a real fullback.  Their starting SAM is a liability.  The kicker is, unfortunately, still a question mark.  They have six different wide receivers who play, which is, when you think about it, completely ridiculous. 

Ok, I can see how you would want to use Baskett in the red zone.  And Avant has his abilities -- although he's stopped catching everything that comes his way.  But seriously, if you need to take parts of six guys to make two starting wide receivers, then clearly you're at the very least trying something that's never been done before in the history of the NFL. 

Westbrook remains one of the most dangerous weapons in the game, only it doesn't matter because no one blocks for him. 

And of course no one's missed the irony of the EAGLES FINALLY CHOOSING TO RUN THE BALL THE YEAR THEY CAN'T DO IT.

On the other hand, say what you want about the playcalls, but how is it that Andy Reid -- Mr. Everything Starts Up Front -- has built a team completely incapable of running for one yard?  

That's far more damning if you ask me.  In fact, did you see the look on Steve Spanuolo's face after we chose to do the one thing everyone in the stadium knew we couldn't do?  Here it is:

   

That, folks, is a man confused by what he just saw.

Since When Is 19 Points Not Enough?

Not to be an ungrateful wretch, but I wasn't all that fired up about yesterday's effort.  Am I turning into just another Negadelphian?  I don't think so, and here's why.

You can't quibble with the result.  Throw out the one dumb play by Lito "I clearly believe my next contract will be directly proportionate to the number of INTs I have this year" Sheppard, and the Eagles were up 26-0 in points and 419-143 in yards.  That's a butt whupping of such completeness that the local papers in Seattle are writing things today like this:

NOT SINCE JIMMY Buffett failed to find his lost shaker of salt has anyone in pop culture seemed as bewilderingly forlorn as was Seahawks coach Mike Holmgren on Sunday.

Aside from his years-ago power struggle with former president Bob Whitsitt, Holmgren is as low as he's been in his decade in Seattle.

Final season, no veteran quarterback, no rushing game, spotty defense, 2-6 at midseason and no prospects of beating a good team.

"They are trying hard. ... It breaks my heart," he said with a soft heaviness in his voice. "It breaks my heart."

At least it came at the hands of an old friend, right coach?

So why am I underwhelmed?  Because it's clear the Eagles can play even better.

McNabb is streaky, we all know that.  So you have to take the handful of "where was that ball going" drives along with the ones where every throw is an on-the-money laser.  That's why the sideline reporter in last week's game said she talked to Reid at halftime about what he needed to do about his offense and Reid told her he just wanted to see McNabb keep firing.  He knows that a slow start often just means a hot finish.

But the problem is that when things aren't going well for the offense, the result is just really, really ugly.  It's not like they run the ball for four yards, have an imcompletion, then pick up a short first down before then going three-and-out from there to punt.  Nope, it's incomplete, stuff, incomplete, punt.  And it's maddening to watch.

When that comes against an opponent like the Seahawks, it's no harm, no foul.  You could spot 'em three touchdowns and still come roaring back.  But against the good teams, that approach will get you buried before half time.

Consider this:  the Giants are clearly the class of the conference right now.  They couple a dominating pass rush with a powerful rushing attack -- a combination that makes it very, very hard to come back against them once they get ahead.  You won't have the ball that often because they'll control the clock, and when you do and have to pass, they'll release the hounds and break down your protection.  Slow start = death in those games. 

So yeah, the effort yesterday was more than adequate to beat the Seahawks.  But apply that template to some of the other good teams around the league and it doesn't look as good.

- - - - - -

Other notes on the game.

The Eagles wide receivers are back to their problems with man coverage.  It was great to see some offense from the tight end position, but until Curtis got things going late, we saw a lot of the same "separation" problems on the outside that we've seen before. 

I'm not sure how much to read into Celek's big day.  On the one hand, you set the franchise record for receiving yards at your position, you've had a pretty good game.  On the other, he was basically uncovered on the first two big catches (44 and 27 yards).  I know the town's going to get really excited, since the majority of folks here have been itching to get rid of LJ for a long time, but if Celek can match the numbers in this one game over his next three games, I'll be very, very surprised.  Still, I've said all along that I thought Celek looked like he knew what he was doing, but he'd had every opportunity to make an impact with all the time LJ's missed the last year and a half and he'd never done it.  Yesterday, he did it.

Yes, yes, the red zone thing sucks, but I don't think we can overrate the importance of what we're seeing with David Akers.  Look, I don't know if it's leg strength or technique or getting a better feel for the wind or whatever.  All I know is that early in the season, Akers came to the ball looking like he hoped he'd make the kick and now he's coming to the ball looking like he knows he'll make the kick.  Even the short kicks he was making early in the season were often to one side or the other.  Yesterday the goal posts could have been four feet wide and he still would have made 'em.  This is a very good sign for January.

This should be the Westbrook/Jackson show.  On the Eagles first three drives, Westbrook got two handoffs, Jackson had one ball thrown his way ... and Curtis was the target of four incompletions.  I'm not blaming Curtis for not coming up with those terrible throws -- and did you think maybe McNabb had a hand injury after the first couple drives like I did, sheesh -- but I'm not sure "establish Kevin Curtis" should be our number one priority while the guy's coming back from his injury. 

It's time to ditch the power short-yardage running game.  For whatever reason, it's just not happening this year.  I'm guessing Reid doesn't want to send his guys the message that he doesn't have faith in their ability to control the line of scrimmage, but look at the line he's got right now.  Tra Thomas does great work outside with DEs, but he's more of a turn and move blocker than a power guy.  Herremans is a tackle trying to play with leverage inside.  Jamaal Jackson does a nice job with the line calls but doesn't win many individual battles.  MJG can be beaten inside with quickness, but is a power blocker.  Jon Runyan doesn't have the same mauling ability he did five years ago.  None of the tight ends is a dominating run blocker.  And the fullbacks ... yeah. 

So let's stop trying to play 1950's football inside.  On third and two, start going to three wides, shotgun, or even five wide formations with Westbrook able to motion back in.  Ditch the WWI offensive mindset, spread the defense out, and let Westbrook and Buckhalter use their ability to explode through small creases instead.

- - - - - -

Last note for now.  Here's a scary number for you:

Factoid. The early Vegas line last night made the Eagles (5-3) a three-point favorite over the Giants (7-1) in Sunday night's showdown in Lincoln Financial Field.

Hmmm...

Eagles Win! Eagles Win!

A Character Win

The Season is just three weeks old and already the Eagles have played three of those games that good teams play.

The first week's demolition of the Rams was the Taking Care of Business Game.  Bad team, home game, Eagles dominated the way they needed to.

Last week against Dallas, we saw the Good Loss.  Up-and-coming team plays a hard-fought struggle against the class of the league, comes up a bit short, but proves it belongs in the conversation.

Today ... well, today we saw the Character Win.  The Eagles had every reason to fold in this game.  Tough, AFC opponent.  Short week to prepare.  Injuries to key performers like Westbrook, McNabb (for awhile), Andrews and the guys who were already hurt. 

This is a game that the Eagles teams of the last few years would have found a way to lose.  A missed field goal.  That final killer turnover.  Maybe the true gut punch -- the end of game "we can't get off the field" drive. 

But not this team.  The defense today was nothing short of dominating.  If they played somewhat passively against the Cowboys, today they attacked, attacked, attacked. 

Roethlisberger was shot by half time.  You could see the look in his eyes.  The way he lost faith in his linemen to keep him clean.  The Eagles defense destroyed his will.

Tonight and tomorrow, everyone's going to say that this game suggests the Eagles' defense has reclaimed the form of earlier this decade.  That may be true.  But today's effort reminded me far more of those truly dominating teams back in the late 80, early 90s that made pummelling the quarterback, the first, second and third priority and figured everything else would take care of itself.

A word about Brian Dawkins before we get to some other, darker subjects.  What a warrior.  That last, flying leap of a sack -- which could only have come from Dawk -- was the play that finally iced a game that was still within reach.  Seven tackles, a sack, a forced fumble and what I am guessing was one impassioned pre-game speech to his defensive teammates ...  Yeah, let's keep this guy around a little longer.

- - - - - -

And now, the scary parts:

• No word on this point re: the severity of Westbrook's injury.
• On the Eagles' first two drives, they managed 129 yards of offense and looked like they could  move at will.  From that point on, Philadelphia managed only 131 more yards.  Westbrook went out in the middle of the second drive, but once Pittsburgh realized he was done, things changed rapidly for this Eagles' offense.
• Tony Hunt took a vicious helmet-to-helmet shot on the play that knocked him out of the game, but that's two in a row he's started and not finished.
• Reggie Brown still looks nothing close to full speed.

Without Westbrook, this offense still isn't scaring anyone.  And a pretty good defense is coming to town next week.

- - - - - -

Reed making that 53-yard field goal -- his career long -- after CBS showed the "1/4 since 2005 on kicks over 50 yards" graphics was the least surprising thing I've ever seen.  No one misses kicks against the Eagles.

- - - - - -

Finally, and I put this here because I didn't want to end on a bad note, how f-ing good is Sav Rocca?  With all due credit to the work of the defense, Rocca's 64, 54 and 37 (down to the 7) yard punts in the 4th quarter were the Eagles offense.  If he doesn't flip the field position and pin the Steelers deep, there's no safety, no free kick, and maybe no gimme field goal. 

Game ball to the punter, in this one.

Bring On The Rematch

All right, they won the first one.  That sucked, but the chances were there.

Here's the thing.  After the Eagles crushed the Rams, we had no idea what kind of team they were.  The Rams suck, the Eagles got rolling and those things just happen in the first week of the season.

But after this Dallas game -- a game the Eagles played without both starting wide receivers, a big LDE who would really have come in handy, and Shawn Andrews for much of the time -- we now know, this team is legit. 

That's going to be a hard loss to swallow.  I have no idea what McNabb was thinking on that botched handoff to Westbrook.  Seems like one of those plays you run a million times and shouldn't have problems with it.

I'd remind folks, however, that Romo had his own set of baffling mistakes in this game.  They'll quickly be forgotten, of course, since his team won, but those things happen.  Sadly, this one went a long way towards costing our guys this game.

The one real negative about the effort tonight was the defense.  Of course, Dallas has some playmakers.  We weren't going to shut them out.  But the variety of big plays and blown coverages just really wasn't something we wanted to see.  Especially because once the Eagles got burned a few times, Jim Johnson seemed to tighten up out there.  Rather than sending the house to help out a game front four that wasn't getting pressure, he kept playing coverages, desperate to find something that would stop the bleeding. 

Nothing did. 

The big key right now for the team (and the fans) is going to be putting this game behind us quickly.  We've got Pittsburgh coming to the Linc next week, and inasmuch as Dallas is (for now) the class of the NFC, the Steelers looks like they might be the best team the AFC has to offer.  The players are going to have to quickly get over a bruising, deflating loss.  Otherwise, we're gonna get wiped next week.  The fans better show up on Sunday too.

So ... bottom line.  This loss sucks.  I'm feeling surprisingly rational about the whole thing right now, but I'm not going to want to get out of bed tomorrow. 

Here's the thing, though.  We just lost the first game we played against Dallas. 

Now we need to win the next two.

A Second TV Game

We have nine people here for the first week of football season (two babies, seven grown-ups).  Managing the remotes in that situation is always a little challenging.  We've got Texans fans, Redskins fans -- it's a pretty catholic grouping.

Which means I always feel a little bad forcing everyone to watch the last few minutes of an Eagles' blowout.  There are at least three other great fourth quarters happening right this second, so why should we miss those to watch the end of a foregone conclusion?

What happens in these situations is the the Eagles become the second TV game.  The main screen (50" HD) goes to a random assortment (and thanks for finally putting the Game Mix in HD, guys), while the 27" old school model goes to the Eagles.

That's a good news/bad news sort of thing.  I get to see a little less, but on the other hand, it means the Eagles have won going away. 

Today was the very definition of second TV game. 

And man that was awesome. 

McNabb was McNabb.

THREE receivers went over 100 yards.

The special teams were pretty much perfect. 

Brian Westbrook got to be a nice piece of the offense and not the WHOLE offense.

The defense shut down what admittedly may not be a very good offense.

And we saw a ton of new wrinkles on both sides of the ball. 

And with that, I'm going to watch more football.

Damn ths is a great weekend.

Did I Say "Downside Only Game"?

That, folks, is what we call a complete failure of imagination.

I think we can safely say that while only the preseason, this exceeded even the rosiest scenarios of how I expected the offense to look without the two starting wide receivers.  Heck, I'm not even sure our most dangerous wide receiver wasn't on the field tonight. 

Kevin Curtis has far more polish than Jackson, but McNabb and the kid looked like they'd been playing together for years.  That early throw McNabb made on (if memory serves) a mid-range post pattern?  Don threw the ball not just before he made his break, but before he'd even engaged with the CB.  That's just an incredible amount of trust in a rookie. 

(And it seems to support the theory of WR athletic superiority we've argued for a long time, by the way.  Give McNabb a guy he knows will get separation -- real separation, not a half-step -- and McNabb will get him the ball early and often.)

Everyone did his job tonight:

• L.J. continues to show that even if he's maybe not an elite tight end, he's mastered the most important part of this offense:  catching McNabb's ball no matter where's it thrown -- up, down, or behind him. 
• Jason Avant flashed those terrific hands on that touchdown catch, which was much harder than he made it look.
• Djax...nothing more to be said.
• Westbrook.  Same.
• Buck/Book, 5 for 22 running the ball. 
• Tony Hunt looked like he knew where to be and mostly engaged the right man in his first game as a fullback, even though he certainly wasn't burying anyone out there and got blown up on at least one run block.  In other words, he looked pretty much like Thomas Tapeh. 
• Even Baskett chipped in a play, if he tried to do too much at the end of it. 

Offensive line also looked dominant, even though as we know the Pats didn't get too tricky. 

And McNabb is McNabb.

- - - - - -

Special teams finally showed some life.  I don't want to jinx it.

Good on ya, Sav, though.  Guess he was just a little rusty that first game.

- - - - - -

On the defensive side, everything I said before the game still holds.  Yeah, they looked good.  But Matt Cassel is not an NFL quarterback.  That tends to make things easier.

Glad to see Trent Cole finally got a holding call though.  About time.

- - - - - - 

And just to throw this out there ... is anyone else starting to get a little concerned about Omar Gaither?  He seems to be missing a lot of open-field tackles.  I'm beginning to wonder if he's the classic tweener.  Too small for the middle, too slow for the outside. 

What's the wisdom of the crowd on that one?

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.

- - - - - -

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.

- - - - - -

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. 

- - - - - -

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.

- - - - - -

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.

- - - - - -

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.

- - - - - -

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.]

- - - - - -

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.

- - - - - -

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?

- - - - - -

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.

- - - - - -

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 :)

Steelers Game Recap

This is going to be a little lot shorter than what I usually do in the regular season.  Mostly that's because it's Friday night and, really, if you're hanging around to read this right after a preseason game, you have even less of a life than I do.  But also, I plan to get the video rewind knocked out this weekend.  And since preseason games are all about that kind of in-depth evaluation, rather than big storylines, they're more about the rewind anyway.

With that said, let's go positive/negative. 

Bad stuff first:

• That first defensive series sure was rough.  I covered the attacking-the-edges point below, but I want to add that on first viewing the linebackers looked really tentative out there.  I'll have to watch again to be sure, but that was my first impression.
• Brian Dawkins looked really, really slow on that touchdown he gave up.  That was disconcerting. 
• Really disconcerting. 
• The special teams still look terrible. 
  • The return men seemed fine, but the coverage and blocking still wasn't there.  Nice return by Demps on that last punt. 
  • Akers had two good kickoffs and then a really, really weird one that seemed to not spin at all -- or go very far.  That was strange. 
  • Rocca put two balls in the end zone.  Good touch. 
• Front four -- no matter the mix -- seemed to get no pressure until we got down to the Jerome McDougle's.  That's disappointing.
• Ryan Moats is still fast as hell, dumb as ...

What I liked:

• DMac.  Obviously.  He looked great.  I especially like the way he chose to throw the ball away a couple of times rather than risk possible sacks when the play wasn't there.  He's going to have to do that more now to stay healthy.
• DeSean Jackson.  Five catches, 51 yards.  Seemed to be open the whole time he was on the field.  Great reach-back catch on a poor throw by McNabb.  The only thing we didn't see from him was any real attempt to get down the field deep.
• Booker.  I'm a Booker Believer now.  We knew, based on all reports, that he could play well as a receiver, but I was most impressed tonight by how good he looked carrying the football.  Four carries, 16 yards, may not seem like much, but he showed nice patience and seemed to be really following his blocks.
• Tony Hunt.  Still looks like the running back I remember.  Didn't see a trace of the "heaviness" some observers have suggested he was lugging around this year. 
• Starting offensive line.  They looked pretty solid.  They should, of course.
• I was going to put King Dunlap here, but he just picked up that late holding call.  The big man looked like he was holding his own out there for the most part, however.
• Jerome McDougle.  Yes, he was feasting on third-stringers, but he looked quick and strong.

Other observations:

• Guys who look like football players:  Joe Mays and Andy Studebaker.  Be interesting to see some more of them.  
• All those bottom of the depth chart WRs are really small.
• A.J. Feeley seems to really be enjoying entering the who-gives-a-crap phase of his career.  The best teams always have slightly unhinged third QBs, I think.

Finally, I've been telling you for weeks that FB Jason Davis was going to be the key to solving the red zone issues.  Didn't I?

More later this weekend.  Good night everyone.