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Monday, October 30, 2006

Jags 13, Birds 6 

As for the Eagles 13-6 loss yesterday to the Jacksonville Jaguars … Well, the less said the better. The Eagles great Achillies Heel – both of them – were exposed for the world to see on Sunday. First, the Eagles cannot run the ball. Just 85 yards on 20 carries, but 37 of those came from McNabb scrambling five times. Correll Buckhalter managed just ten yards on two carries and Westbrook got 38 yards on thirteen carries. Simply put, the Eagles could not run the ball worth anything and it caused the Jaguar defenders to tee off on McNabb and the wideouts and clamp down on them.

The Eagles passing game had its worst game of the season as a result: McNabb completed just eighteen passes for 161 yards, easily a season-low. Players not named Westbrook caught ten passes for 93 yards. An offense that relies on big plays got none. What really stuns me was how the Eagles wideouts managed just five catches for 73 yards, and Donte Stallworth had three of those grabs. Reggie Brown and Greg Lewis might as well been invisible yesterday. They did nothing.

A big disappointment was L.J. Smith, the Eagles tight end. With the wideouts bottled up, L.J. ought to have had a bigger play making plays, but he caught just one pass for eleven yards. Terrible.

So while I fault McNabb a little for the Eagles poor performance, it was really the failure of the supporting cast – Westbrook dropping passes, the Eagles wideouts vanishing, the Eagles backs not running the ball – that led the Eagles to score just six points. Easily a season-low.

And the Eagles D couldn’t stop the run at all. Jacksonville looked like Nebraska circa 1997 back there, running the ball 46 times for 207 yards. Fred Taylor had 103 yards, Jones-Drew had 77 and David Girard had 36. The Jaguars run game was so good they threw just 17 passes and completed just ten for 87 yards. The Eagles will face Clinton Portis and the Redskins twice this season along with Michael Vick in the season finale (that is starting to loom like a very important game), so we have to stop their running games or we won’t make the playoffs.

So what do the Eagles playoff chances look like? Not good, but anything can happen in this league. What is important is for the Eagles to stick it to the Washington Redskins when they come out of the bye and make up some ground and quick. Last season the Eagles entered the Redskins game at 4-3 and had just dismissed T.O. They lost a game they could have won 17-10 and saw their season implode with a 21-20 loss to the Cowboys the next week. If the Eagles lose to the Redskins they will fall to 4-5 and will need a lot of help getting into the playoffs.

It’s a Must-Win.

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Monday, October 23, 2006

Bucs 23, Eagles 21 

All I could think, as I digested the Eagles stunning 23-21 loss yesterday to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers was: Wow, that really sucked.

Let’s face it: the Bucs were lucky and the Eagles deserved to lose more than the Bucs deserved to win. The Eagles allowed a pair of defensive touchdowns and surrendered a 62-yard field goal at the very end. You won’t see very many games like that, even in the ever unpredictable NFL, but the Bucs luck was a product of a very sloppy game from Donovan McNabb. Here are my thoughts on the matter:

1. Going into yesterday’s game Donovan McNabb had thrown 13 TDs and 2 Ints. Yesterday he threw 3 TDs and 3 picks. Yesterday McNabb posted his season-low QB rating, just 83.3, the second consecutive week he’s posted his season low QB rating. At the moment McNabb is still leading the NFL in passing yards and TD passes, but he’s fallen to second in QB rating behind Peyton Manning. As Donovan goes, so goes the Eagles …

2. There actually was a lot to like about yesterday’s game (aside from the score): the Bucs netted just 196 yards against the Eagles D, and just 85 through the air, which had been a bit of a weakness. They contained the Bucs offense very well and gave them a hard time. The problem with the Eagles D’s performance was that they didn’t do two things: sack the QB (just two for nine yards); and they didn’t force a turnover.

3. The Eagles moved the ball against a good defense when they weren’t turning it over. The Eagles rushed for an impressive 208 yards on the ground, which is a major, major improvement over the last few weeks. Westbrook got 100 yards rushing and receiving, which is good news: the Eagles need him to stretch the field like Marshall Faulk used to do for the St. Louis Rams.

4. The Eagles wideouts looked pretty bottled up. We need Donte Stallworth back to making impact plays soon. The Eagles wideouts had 12 catches for 166 yards. And 41 of those came on one of Reggie Brown’s catches. C’mon guys: you are giving TO ammo!

5. The really bad news is that the loss technically drops the Eagles into third place at the moment, although that will change with tonight’s Cowboys-Giants game (the Eagles will lap the loser for second). A quick gaze at the playoff picture reveals a few issues for the Eagles: the Bears are 6-0 and show no signs of slowing down. The Saints are 5-1 and now own a tiebreaker on the Eagles. Home field advantage and a first-round playoff bye might be off the table for the Eagles for the 2006 playoffs. Perhaps both teams will struggle down the stretch (we are talking about the Saints, after all, but I doubt it. I think that getting that first round bye that has been so vital to the Eagles playing in the NFC title game is not going to happen.

The real problem is that the Eagles need to start turning their attention to the mundane tasks of winning the division, getting into the playoffs, and making sure they do better than .500. The NFC looks much stronger than in years past, so winning the NFC East might be the Eagles best bet for making the playoffs, because there are a lot of good teams with four wins sitting in second or third place in their divisions right now (Rams, Vikings, Falcons, Panthers). The Eagles late-season matchups with the Falcons and Panthers might loom larger, as they might determine playoff tie-breakers in the event that the Eagles find themselves looking for a wildcard.

Anybody notice how much tougher that schedule looks? Panthers. Falcons. Jaguars. Colts. Cowboys and Giants on the road. The Redskins twice. It is going to be tough for the Eagles to go 10-6. Sad to say, but this loss might loom very large as the season rolls on.

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Tuesday, October 17, 2006

I was watching... 

The NFL network last night and observed the pitifull performance turned in by Eagles Cheerleaders Janipher and Allison in last night's episode. Jeez, dead-last? Terrible. Simply terrible. I can't believe they got the Cleveland Browns and Chicago Bears mixed up as well. Tisk, tisk.

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Monday, October 16, 2006

They Aren't the Aints Anymore... 

The Eagles 27-24 loss to New Orleans yesterday is extremely disappointing, especially given the fact that the Cowboys and Giants both won their games, but it wasn’t overly surprising: the Saints are for real. They have a good QB in Drew Brees, who it hitting on all cylinders and runs the Saints short-range passing game very, very well. Meanwhile, the Saints D is much better than it has been, much more aggressive, much more brutal.

I don’t think the Eagles played a bad game. Streaky, yes, but bad … definitely not. The Saints disrupted McNabb well enough, but couldn’t prevent the Eagles Offense from scoring 24 points. I have a couple of thoughts:

1. The Eagles need to run the ball more. They called 35 passes to 19 runs. I am not saying that their pass-run ratio is going to be 1:1, but it ought to be a little closer to that than 2:1.

2. The Saints really did a nice job holding Brian Westbrook in check. Three receiving yards? Ouch.

3. McNabb didn’t spread the ball like he did against the Cowboys: Reggie Brown was the sole Eagles WR who got anything going in the game. A week removed from his big 87-yard TD and Hank Baskett got nothing?

4. Another week, another pick for Lito Shepard.

5. McNabb is off to a blistering start and didn’t get slowed much yesterday – although yesterday was a season-low in terms of passing yardage. Still, McNabb is hitting on 59% of his throws, with 1,849 yards, 13 TDs and 2 INTs. Right now McNabb is leading the NFL in TD passes, yardage and QB rating.

Up next: the Eagles play the Buccaneers. First time the Eagles have played the Buccaneers since they lost the first game at the Linc, 17-0, part of the disastrous 0-2 start to the 2003 campaign, which saw them roll off ten victories in their final eleven games. I wouldn’t quite call it a “must-win”, but it is the easiest game on the Eagles schedule until they play Tennessee at the end of November.

Check out Part III of my series on the Wiz Kids over at A Citizens Blog.

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Thursday, October 12, 2006

T.O. Wars: The Wrath of Parcells 

It was only a matter of time before Mt. Owens blew up and I think it happened yesterday with T.O.’s little tantrum to the media where he bitched about not getting the ball enough. My favorite part was when T.O. acknowledged being told that the Cowboys base offense wouldn’t change to accommodate him, but he signed on with the ‘Boys anyway and expected them to make him the focal point of their offense. I could just imagine Bill Parcells slapping his hand to his face and groaning when he heard that.

Thanks to this last week I think you can safely say that T.O.’s days in Dallas are numbered. How long do you think a master motivator / manipulator like Bill Parcells is going to put up with this crap? He’s had to deal with the T.O. show all summer long and now that it is fall and he’s right back to acting like a spoiled child, when will Parcells simply say: “Enough is enough”? And yet here is T.O. doing what he did in San Francisco and what he did in Philadelphia: blaming the quarterback, reaming out the coaches for not adjusting their plans to fit his designs, and making his battle about him vs. the team and not the team vs. the rest of the NFL.

I was watching the NFL network’s replay of the Eagles and Cowboys and I was struck by what everyone said afterwards about Lito Shepard’s first pick, when T.O. broke up the field and Bledsoe underthrew the route: Troy Aikman speculated that the play was more a miscommunication between T.O. and Bledsoe than Bledsoe making a bad throw. In the post-game, Bledsoe claimed he and T.O. had a miscommunication and that was why the pick happened. T.O.? Usual act from him: veiled accusations that the play was Bledsoe’s fault. The unbiased observer (Aikman) faulted T.O. for a miscommunication, Bledsoe took responsibility for his end of a mutual mistake, T.O. blamed someone else.

Eagles – Saints this week. Not to denigrate the Saints, but I don’t believe that they are anywhere near as good as their 4-1 record suggests. Three of their four wins were against the Browns, Packers and Buccaneers. Combined record of those teams: 2-12. I was impressed by their emotional homecoming win over the Falcons, but can they sustain that emotion? I doubt it. They haven’t come into contact with a team as explosive and aggressive as this one yet.

Stay tuned for Part II of the Wiz Kids, my series on the 1950 Philadelphia Phillies, tomorrow on my Phillies blog, A Citizen's Blog.

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Tuesday, October 10, 2006

Best Sunday Ever! 

Sorry for the belated post on the Eagles 38-24 victory over the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday. I actually was in the Philadelphia area this past weekend and didn’t return to my home outside Pittsburgh until late yesterday night.

I honestly don’t think that the Eagles game could have gone any better. There were no reports of ugliness in the stands towards T.O., the Eagles won and won a division game (better still), McNabb had a terrific day and T.O. was basically shut out and spent part of the time on the sidelines screaming at his coaches. Bill Parcells won’t tolerate that for much longer.

-Generally, I am going to echo the sentiment of every other pundit: the Eagles-Cowboys game was a massive victory for the Eagles defense. They provided the Giants and Redskins with a compelling blueprint for containing T.O.: put a body on him at all times and put pressure on Drew Bledsoe, that enormous statute that sits in the Cowboys pocket. Bledsoe has a cannon for an arm, but he’s an old-style pocket passer in a mobile QB age.

Even without Jevon Kearse the Eagles D played great, consistently getting pressure up the middle to Bledsoe, forcing him to throw the ball away or take a sack. I was really impressed by the job that Brian Dawkins, Sheldon Brown and Lito Shepard did all game long in coverage with T.O. and Terry Glenn and Jason Witten. This is a Dallas team with lots of weapons on offense and the Eagles did a great job putting pressure on Bledsoe and keeping those guys contained for nearly the entire game. The secondary turned in a terrific performance. Now if the linebackers could finally stop the running game…

-McNabb is on track to throw for a Peyton Manning-like 5,126 yards this season. Thus far this season he’s thrown for 314, 350, 296, 288 and 354 yards. McNabb has also thrown eleven TD’s and just one INT. Yes, he’s been picked once in 176 attempts. He’s also averaging 9.1 yards per pass attempt. He’s been fantastic this season. Honestly, this might be his finest season yet, better than his T.O.-inflated 2004 campaign, better than his do-it-himself 2000 campaign where Marshall Faulk robbed him of the MVP. He has to be the MVP front-runner for 2006. He’s carried the Eagles with their weak rushing attack on his arm without a super-star wide-out back there. As long as #5 is out there, the Eagles can win.

-Well, the Eagles still can’t get much of a running game going. I wonder if the Steelers would consider parting with Duce Staley. He knows our system, he’s popular and he’s still a good runner. Plus the Steelers are content to go with Najea Davenport and Willie Parker. The Eagles need some sort of #2 back to take the pressure off Westbrook and open some lanes.

-Something else that impressed me from Sunday: the Eagles threw for 354 yards without Donte Stallworth, arguably their best wideout. Hopefully he’ll play Sunday. I figure he and Darren Howard would be up to it.

-Sunday: Saints. In the past I’d figure you could put a gigantic ‘W’ next to this game, but the ‘Aints are playing well. What worries me is not their momentum, but why they are winning: the play of their running back duo of Reggie Bush and Deuce McAllister. Seems to me that this is the type of attack that the Eagles are ill-equipped to stop, with their problems stopping the running game. I still think the Eagles will win, but it is vital they get a ‘W’ this week and next so they are 6-1 going into the Jacksonville game, which will be tough and physical. After that, they get the meat of their schedule: Carolina, Giants and Cowboys on the road, the Redskins twice, Indy, and Vick and the Falcons. Win now, survive later.

Check out my Phillies blog, A Citizens Blog, to read Part I of my series on the 1950 Phillies.

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Wednesday, October 04, 2006

Let the Fun Begin... 

Eagles fans gearing up for T.O. Let the fun begin!

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Tuesday, October 03, 2006

If Wishes Were Horses ... 

Let’s talk some football … Do you know what really pisses me off about the Eagles 30-24 OT loss in week two to the Giants? We’d be 4-0 heading into this Sunday’s matchup with T.O. with games right after that against the over-rated Saints and the ripe-for-the-plucking Buccaneers. We could have been 7-0 heading into the pre-bye game against the Jaguars.

Still, 3-1 is good and the Eagles turned in a dominating performance last night. The defense did a great job with Brett Favre. Sure they never sacked him, but they got pressure in on him the entire evening and forced him to throw two interceptions and twenty incompletions. The Packers never got anything going all night long.

On the other side of the ball, the Eagles looked like the old pre-T.O. team. McNabb ran for 47 yards, something that he got away from once T.O. joined the team and he injured his hernia last year. Donovan looked good out there, juking and jiving around the field, spreading the ball around and throwing lasers. His 21-yard toss to L.J. Smith was literally perfect – the only way he could have gotten the ball to him was to thread the needle and lay it in over the defender’s hands. McNabb looked confident and in-control.

I thought the Eagles run-game was so-so. They did a decent job given that they didn’t have Brian Westbrook in the backfield. Moats and Buckhalter combined for 71 yards on 18 carries which is … so-so. They need to commit to the run more late in games to close them out. In McNabb’s final drive of the game they were still throwing the ball. They need to commit to the run at the end of games more.

Anyway, with the Eagles season just heating up and the Phillies season winding down I am anticipating doing more posting at The Bird Blog in the coming weeks, especially with T.O. vs. McNabb in the offing next week. Over at A Citizen's Blog, my Phillies blog, I will continue to follow the playoffs, discuss the Phillies post-season decisions and start posting my big, big, big project next Tuesday morning.

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