Saturday, July 03, 2004
ESPN's Pre-Season Look...
ESPN recently did their 2004 pre-season look at the Eagles, and I had neglected to post my thoughts:
The article (click here for it) by Kieran Darcy was pretty predictable: T.O. and Kearse are the big additions, the secondary is a big if with Troy Vincent and Bobby Taylor gone, etc. I disagree with Darcy's belief that the Eagles won't miss Duce. I think he might be the defection of the off-season, but I guess we'll see.
Meanwhile, Len Pasqurelli sees 2004 as being a big year for NFC East QB's to air it out, which has me nervous. This is the one facet of the game that the Eagles appear to be most vulnerable at, although hopefully Kearse will fix that.
On ESPN's Fact of Fiction Mark Schlereth sees the Eagles winning the division again, but Merril Huge likes the Redskins. The Redskins? I don't think so. (Check out ESPN's "Five Questions" too.) (The Eagles are No. 2 on ESPN's Power Rankings, by the way.)
My preliminary thoughts on the Eagles are this:
-This team could be very good and pick up where they left off in the second-half of 2003 when they went 10-1 after losing to the Cowboys in Week 6. Kearse could break the NFL record for sacks, Lito Shepard and Sheldon Brown could turn into a dynamic duo on the corners, T.O. could make the Eagles offense more explosive than the Rams "Max Q", and Brian Westbrook could rush for 1,000 yards. The Eagles could go 12-4 again, make the NFC title game and finally win it.
-Or, the Eagles could implode: their 2003 inability to stop the run could be combined in 2004 with a newfound vulnerability to the pass and make the Eagles bend-but-don't-break defense too porous to stop even the Giants. T.O. could get fed up if Donovan gets off to a slow start, the Eagles could miss Duce's leadership and pass-catching skills, and Kearse, Westbrook, Jones and Donovan could all injure themselves. (The spectre of Jeff Blake hangs over us always.) This team could go 6-10 and finish dead last. You never know. I'm betting on the former, but there is no sure thing in the NFL anymore: back in the early 1990's there were really just two superpower teams, the 49ers and the Cowboys, and twenty-eight pertenders of varying skill levels. You could bank on the fact that the 49ers and the Cowboys would play each other in the NFC title game and the winner would win the Super Bowl. So much so that the 49ers basically admitted that they made free agent decisions in 1994 plotting matchups for the inevitable showdown in the January '95 NFC title game, which they did win against the Cowboys, 38-21.
Today, with the salary cap and free agency, there are no more superpower teams. The Panthers went from 1-15 to 7-9 to the Super Bowl. The Raiders went from the Super Bowl to the gutter even more swiftly. Mark my words, this is the season that a team like the Arizona Cardinals wins the Super Bowl simply because nobody sees them coming.
We'll know more when the preseason starts.
|
The article (click here for it) by Kieran Darcy was pretty predictable: T.O. and Kearse are the big additions, the secondary is a big if with Troy Vincent and Bobby Taylor gone, etc. I disagree with Darcy's belief that the Eagles won't miss Duce. I think he might be the defection of the off-season, but I guess we'll see.
Meanwhile, Len Pasqurelli sees 2004 as being a big year for NFC East QB's to air it out, which has me nervous. This is the one facet of the game that the Eagles appear to be most vulnerable at, although hopefully Kearse will fix that.
On ESPN's Fact of Fiction Mark Schlereth sees the Eagles winning the division again, but Merril Huge likes the Redskins. The Redskins? I don't think so. (Check out ESPN's "Five Questions" too.) (The Eagles are No. 2 on ESPN's Power Rankings, by the way.)
My preliminary thoughts on the Eagles are this:
-This team could be very good and pick up where they left off in the second-half of 2003 when they went 10-1 after losing to the Cowboys in Week 6. Kearse could break the NFL record for sacks, Lito Shepard and Sheldon Brown could turn into a dynamic duo on the corners, T.O. could make the Eagles offense more explosive than the Rams "Max Q", and Brian Westbrook could rush for 1,000 yards. The Eagles could go 12-4 again, make the NFC title game and finally win it.
-Or, the Eagles could implode: their 2003 inability to stop the run could be combined in 2004 with a newfound vulnerability to the pass and make the Eagles bend-but-don't-break defense too porous to stop even the Giants. T.O. could get fed up if Donovan gets off to a slow start, the Eagles could miss Duce's leadership and pass-catching skills, and Kearse, Westbrook, Jones and Donovan could all injure themselves. (The spectre of Jeff Blake hangs over us always.) This team could go 6-10 and finish dead last. You never know. I'm betting on the former, but there is no sure thing in the NFL anymore: back in the early 1990's there were really just two superpower teams, the 49ers and the Cowboys, and twenty-eight pertenders of varying skill levels. You could bank on the fact that the 49ers and the Cowboys would play each other in the NFC title game and the winner would win the Super Bowl. So much so that the 49ers basically admitted that they made free agent decisions in 1994 plotting matchups for the inevitable showdown in the January '95 NFC title game, which they did win against the Cowboys, 38-21.
Today, with the salary cap and free agency, there are no more superpower teams. The Panthers went from 1-15 to 7-9 to the Super Bowl. The Raiders went from the Super Bowl to the gutter even more swiftly. Mark my words, this is the season that a team like the Arizona Cardinals wins the Super Bowl simply because nobody sees them coming.
We'll know more when the preseason starts.
Comments:
Post a Comment
