Iggles Blog - Philadelphia Eagles Blog

Wow, Even For Philadelphia

I wouldn't say yesterday was the best win in the history of the franchise, but this is still pretty amazing:

Bob Ford: Despite win, Eagles reek of defeat

SAN FRANCISCO - It isn't a good sign when an NFL team supposedly good enough to make a deep run in the playoffs needs a come-to-Donovan meeting after just five games of the regular season.

That's what happened last week, when Donovan McNabb gathered the team after the Washington loss and everybody held hands - when they weren't pointing fingers - and sang campfire songs and pledged to stick together.

It shouldn't be necessary to motivate professional football players that way, but the Eagles are apparently an exception this year.

...

Yesterday, the Eagles freshened their record with a very strange 40-26 win over the San Francisco 49ers, but in many ways there is still the odor of ultimate defeat about the team. If it takes a full-blown team meeting and a week of rah-rah to dispense with the 49ers, again, that's not a good sign.

There are three kinds of teams in the NFL:

1. The couple of really good ones who generally don't lose to anyone (except when they do).

2. The handful of really bad ones who generally don't beat anyone.

3. Everyone else.

The Eagles are clearly in category three right now, which means saying they "reek of defeat" after a win like yesterday's seems a little bizarre.

Here's the other strange thing about this one:

The Eagles do have injury issues, but those weren't critical yesterday. Correll Buckhalter filled in very well for Brian Westbrook, the receivers were fine, and Max Jean-Gilles plugged the guard spot of Shawn Andrews. On defense, where there were no injuries, there weren't any excuses, either.

First of all, tossing out the freebie touchdown on the blocked field goal means the Eagles' defense only gave up 19 points.  That's not a wonderful game, but it's not terrible either, especially when you factor in a dominating fourth quarter that basically won this team the game.

Secondly, to wave off injuries to your best player, best lineman and both starting wide receivers with the notion that they weren't "critical" is ridiculous.  Yes, Buckhalter played a heck of a game yesterday.  I should have to do a public mea culpa for suggesting this summer that I thought he might be the odd man out this fall.  That was stupid.

But the truth is that if you give Westbrook the same blocking you gave Buck yesterday, he probably does even more with it.  And maybe you convert that third-and-one from midfield in the third quarter if you have Shawn Andrews out there.  And with Curtis and Brown, maybe you can pick up one or two more fourth-quarter first downs to salt the game away.

Frankly, I think it's amazing that anyone would just shrug off the fact that the Eagles won a game by 14 points in which they were missing more than two-thirds of last year's offensive production (67.4 percent).  And sure, you might argue that the game-ending interception return was fluky, but then take away the blocked field goal, which was even more so, and call it 33-19. 

It wasn't pretty.  It wasn't always comfortable.  But it was a win by a seriously depleted team that over the next two weeks may finally be able to get healthy.  No reek here.

What He Said

You should read Football Outsiders' breakdown of the Eagles' first possession against the Redskins.  Check out how many times Westbrook is mentioned, even on plays where he doesn't get the ball.

The "lessons learned" section at the bottom is also interesting.  I'm not sure about #3 (how do you see that on TV?) but #4 and #5 are common themes around here:

4) The Eagles keep things very simple when they run. They really just like to run the stretch and give Westbrook cutback lanes. It's not as effective when Westbrook is banged up or another back is in there. You will rarely see a lot of designed counters, pulling guards, other runs with complex blocking schemes from the Eagles. That makes them predictable and easy to stop when Westbrook is not at full speed and/or a key blocker like Andrews isn't around.

5) The lack of playmakers is still a problem. Watch the tape and you will see Lorenzo Booker trying to run the deep sideline route. He catches the ball out of bounds; I don't know if Westbrook would have made the catch in bounds or created more room for himself on the sidelines so McNabb could make a better throw. You've got Jason Avant and Hank Baskett running around doing very little. Greg Lewis is still playing a significant role. These aren't players who are going to make much happen against a good defense ... It can all still work when McNabb and Westbrook are 100 percent, but they rarely are, and there is no Plan B.

For more on the run game creativity issue stretching back well before this season see here.  For more on the playmakers issue, check the entirety of the Internet.

This Won't Surprise You Much

I was asked to submit another game preview deal on AOL Fanhouse.  You can read it here, although it won't officially be unveiled for a little while.

It's written for a national audience, so it won't surprise you much.  But hey, it's something until I can grab a few minutes to finish up this other stats-related thing I'm working on.

This Is Great

NFL.com's "anatomy of a play" breaks down a couple of Eagles' sacks from last week against the Steelers:  http://www.nfl.com/videos?videoId=09000d5d80b1e56c

(ht)

Marty Lets His Guard Down...

...for just a second.

I noticed this earlier in the morning from YAEB "Eaglesville":

The Eagles have said it thousands of times before. They don't feel they need a No. 1 wide receiver. It doesn't mean they wouldn't rather have one though.

If this offseason, when they made a run for Randy Moss and inquired about Larry Fitzgerald, wasn't enough evidence, Marty Mornhingweg came out and said it on Thursday.

"I'd rather have a No. 1 wide receiver," Mornhinweg said.

I kind of figured there was some missing context here, but since the transcript wasn't posted yet, I had to go watch the press conference at lunch time.  You'll only get the full effect if you watch it on video (it comes right near the end), but the transcript is now up:

On whether there is an advantage to not having a number one receiver: "You can debate that. I personally would rather have a number one receiver, but you can do it the other way and be just as explosive and dynamic. I've had it both ways, and I think that we have several guys that are sort of number one receivers. We spread it out just a little bit and roll those guys in, so it may not look like it, but I think we have more than a couple guys that are pretty good players."

That's pretty straightforward -- other than the attempted backfilling starting with "and be just as explosive and dynamic..." 

Does it mean anything in the grand scheme of things?  Probably not.  Is it interesting as a contrast to the typical "always on message" approach to the organization's handling of these kinds of questions?  Most definitely.

Kudos to Eaglesville for spotting it first.

This Is Getting A Little Ridiculous

Bob Brookover does a good, sound review of LJ's snap-by-snap performance last game to show that the Eagles' tight end hasn't suddenly morphed into a huskier Todd Pinkston:

Sometimes you can look at the box score and learn a lot about the player. Sometimes you can't. Smith had zero receptions Sunday during the Eagles' 15-6 win over the Pittsburgh Steelers, but that doesn't mean he had a bad game. He did not.

Smith was on the field for six offensive series and 41 plays. He missed the fourth quarter because of lower-back pain. His assignment on 25 of those 41 plays was to block a defensive lineman or linebacker. With the exception of one play in the third quarter, he performed those blocking assignments well.

In fact, the only time he whiffed on an assignment, Correll Buckhalter got loose for a 7-yard gain anyway.

The point is that 61 percent of the time, the Eagles asked their tight end to block, which greatly reduces the chance for him to make the kind of receiving impact that Jason Witten has had with the Dallas Cowboys this season.

Smith ran pass routes on 16 plays against the Steelers, but the ball was thrown in his direction only twice. There were other times when he was open, but quarterback Donovan McNabb opted to go elsewhere. Often, McNabb made a good decision because his other option was a receiver open deeper down the field.

Straightforward, convincing.  But why is this even remotely necessary? 

LJ's been here for six years.  We know exactly what he brings to this offense.  We know that while he might not be Jason Witten, he definitely brings something to the table each week.  His blocking has steadily improved as he's been in the league.  And after all this time in the offense, he even rivals Jason Avant in his ability to catch McNabb's off-target rockets.

LJ Smith is not Brian Dawkins, a veteran player well on the wrong side of 30 whose every small misstep makes us wonder if he's finally going to play to his age...

Nor is he DeSean Jackson, a rookie who's played all of three games in the NFL, with a future that's completely unknowable at this point...

He's also not Chris Clemons, a free agent acquisition who has to adjust to the Eagles system, has been fighting through injuries, and doesn't even have all that long of a track record to go by...

What kind of idiot says to himself -- "You know, LJ Smith only has one catch in his last two games, that must mean he SUCKS!!!"  Unless you've only become an Eagles fan in about the last year, there's really no excuse for such lazy analysis. 

- - - - - -

Here's why this really bothers me, though.  LJ had more than one reason to try to play last year.  We know it wasn't just about trying to help the team win.  But the guy battled his guts out -- almost literally, in fact -- to get on the field last year with the same injury that has knocked out guys like Donovan and Curtis for months.  You could see the way he moved that everything he did on the field was causing him pain.  And yet every week he busted his ass to be out there. 

Now, here we are, one year later, and the howling jackals are out there screaming about how he's a "wuss," he "sucks," and he's "stealing money."

That's ridiculous.

Andy's Own Video Rewind

Oooh, promoting this baby from the comments:

always love your video rewinds. speaking of which, did you see the new atlantic piece by mark bowden where he reviews game film of the 1958 nfl championship game with andy? very interesting piece, and sounds like the "real" andy participated, not the automaton we are used to in the press conferences...

http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200810/nfl-eagles

Posted by: Ravi | September 10, 2008 at 11:29 PM

Great piece, well worth reading on many levels.

Been Waiting For This

Must-read Les Bowen post -- if you like soap operas -- in which Sheldon Brown makes it clear that Sheldon Brown doesn't think too highly of Drew Rosenhaus calling for Sheldon Brown to be benched.

Also a simply classic game of "blame the media" being played by Lito Sheppard at the end.

THIS is what those all those philly.com blogs should be for.

Now With Google Maps!

FO links today to every cable-bound, out-of-market fan's favorite site:  the guy who posts the broadcast maps for Sunday's games.

And in a nice interface update, "that guy" is now using google maps. 

Looks very sharp, that guy. 

Who knew the Dakotas were Detroit Lions country?

Another Clue You're Not In Philadelphia

It's funny, everyone always talks about St. Louis as if it's some sort of sports nirvana.  The fans are always polite, but knowledgeable, and players can perform without the same sorts of "pressure" they are under in a place like Philadelphia.

All of which may be true, but humor me for a minute and check out the Eagles coverage on our local newspaper website. I count nine stories about the Eagles, plus a couple of wire pieces on the rest of the league. 

Now hop on over to the Rams section of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and what do we see?  One story on the Rams and the same wire piece on the guy who got shot. 

One.

Four days before the season opener.

Inasmuch as this means I should really have considered becoming a Rams blogger -- seems like zero MSM competition out there -- I think it's safe to say that most of us are pretty darn happy to have things the way they are here in Philadelphia.