Random Thoughts from the Eagles Week 4 Loss to the Redskins

It was really sad how badly the defensive line was getting worked in the running game. It was a bad omen for the defense I think when Mikell got trucked on the first possesion. This game really showed the defensive weakness against the run.

That was bad enough, not to mention the few times the defense lost sight of McNabb and he effectively jogged for a first down.

I don’t want to be “that guy,” but the officiating was beyond terrible.

Yeah that’s not my style either, but it was BAD yesterday!

I’ll go one step further – I refuse to ever believe that the professional sports are fixed. But wow, if there was ever a game that I would look it and think it was at least a remote possibility it was yesterday.

The penalties that bother me the most are the ones where the flag (for holding for example) doesn’t come out until the play is basically over and official has the chance to see how the play unfolded. There were two REALLY late flags yesterday on the same drive on third down where the Birds had effectively stopped the skins drive only to give them a fresh set of downs

The ball had been spotted at the “1 foot” line prior to the official review. Afterwards, it had been moved back to the 1 yard line. I guess Andy was preparing for a QB sneak, but then realized that it had been pushed back and had to figure out a different play. This held kolb back from getting on the field, thus causing the ridiculous delay of game.

Who was the jackass that had the holding penalty that brought that long run back??? The D-lineman was no where near Vick, he wasn’t going to catch him. Shit, the secondary couldn’t catch him til he was at the 1yd line, yet the O-lineman still decided to grab th defender. Makes no sense. That could’ve been a big momentum swing right.

How many times did Washingtons RBs get through the front seven unscathed? Ive never seen the D play like that.

I 100% agree with the tendency to run on 2nd and 10. Even my 9 year old commented yesterday about the Redskins just knowing that the run was coming.

Do you think they can run that option play with Kolb that they do with Vick when they put Vick in the shotgun and Mccoy next to him to help out the running game. I did see Kolb take off a couple times.

Kolb clearly is a work in progess, but the way he checked down every pass was terrible. He never looked down field, and the one time he had jackson open his accuracy was terrible.

Clearly Kolb isn’t ready to start in the NFL.

- That was maybe the most frustrating game I have watched in a long time.
- What makes the loss hurt more is that fact that despite how badly the Eagles played, they still, quite easily, could have won it. That says something about how bad the Redskins are.
- Washington should be hella lucky they won that game.
- Is there anything that can be done to fix

Mike Pierra or whatever the head of officiating said and Im paraphasing but

Reid called a TO because he saw the ball had been moved back 2 feet. As soon as that happened the 30 second TO clock started ticking. Reid then proceeded to converse with the officials as to why the ball was moved back. It is up to the coaching staff to make sure his team is back on the field after the TO. Reid was too busy talking with the officials by the time he got his answer and the play to kolb the playclock has already started hence being 10seconds left by the time Kolb got in the huddle.

thats what he said. But as Troy said there has been bad officiating this year.

Where the problem was Reid should of never had called a TO. He should of walked on the field and got his answer as to why the ball was moved back. When he called TO it was too late and the clock was ticking no matter what from then

I like Kolb but yesterday 100% convinced that Vick is our future at QB. Where is the guy from last year? It seemed like he wouldn’t even look down field before dumping it off to Shady or Schmitt. With Jackson and Maclin as our WRs we need to push it down field not throw dump-offs. Maclin was only targeted twice and Jackson seven times that’s unacceptable.

Stewart Bradley not playing well is a development I did not see coming

I did. Here’s a couple ways to solve it and we don’t have to waste a first rounder on it….

or even

“It’s not a sexy term for you guys to report about, I know, but we’re going to work on tackling, we’re going to work on getting off blocks, we’re going to work on catching the football, scooping the football up when there’s a ball on the ground,” he said. “That’s what wins football games.”

That is a quote from McDermott on July 28th. Forget the fact that the O could not put up more than 12 points, the more worrisome issue is the play of the D. It seems as if we are ever regressing. Mikell was awful yesterday, and as much as it pains me to say it, Bradley was not much better. We forced 0 fumbles and let them run all over us. And the tackling was just god-awful.

Six minutes left and the Eagles need two scores so how do they attack the Redskins, 4-5 yard passes between the hash marks. It was painful to watch like the Super Bowl.

seems like the eagles have 1 or two of these games every year.

let’s see how they respond.

- Reid’s time management is an embarrassment. It is the single one thing the 610 wingnuts are right to harp on continually. It is embarrassing and seems to play a big role in costing the Eagles at least one win a year every year.

- Celek simply needs to play better. Seemed to be oddly running routes that were a bit deeper than I thought he should be and he was in to block alot once Kolb came in but he simply needs to get open more. Kolb is likely to lean on him heavily next week and he needs to step up with more than a 3-4 catch game for 30-40 yards.

- Bradley looks like a guy who doesn’t have the same quite the same game speed/instincts. People seem to forget he is still coming off a major injury. My bet is that his play notably improves as the season wears on. Still, he had a few huge mistakes yesterday on big plays that really cost the Eagles. He’s a good player but too many people on his board act as if he is an All-Pro. Has to show that over a 16-game schedule.

- Expected Graham to struggle but more often than not he isn’t a factor right now in games. He was matched up in 1-on-1 schemes the entire time yesterday and didn’t do much.

- There are alot of Samuel haters on here but watch how bad this secondary looks next week vs. 49ers if he isn’t able to play. This team’s lack of depth at CB will really show. Who plays on the outside to replace him? Patterson? A guy who hasn’t even dressed the past two weeks (Lindlay?)

- Coleman showed great hustle and made smart plays in the preseason. Why he won the job over Demps. What the hell happened to that guy? He has been make mistakes galore and taken a few dumb penalties so far. Demps could have done the same and given them a legit KR too.

- McDermitt better keep looking over his shoulder because Jauron is looming in the wings and it wouldn’t shock me if Eagles make a change if the defense continues to struggle. They didn’t invest so much in their revamped defense to see it perform so inconsitnely and below average.

My beef is with the defense and Reid. The defense could not tackle “again”. I thought McDerm said, “we went back to basics this offseason” concerning the lack of tackling LAST season. Cooley only killed us for one or two plays. Which aint too bad, but u still don’t wanna give up the big ones. DL looked like they did last year against Dallas. Small. The other teams in our divison get it. Against the birds, u need to establish the run first. Slow down our pass rush. The Skins knew we stocked our DL with more pass-rush specialists. They knew we were gonna come blitzin, so what was their plan..RUN. I give credit to Shanahan. That’s how u game plan. Get the ball outta Dmacs hands to limit the blitz. The run set up those screen passes and playaction passes the entire 1st half.
Unlike Reid! You’ll notice the Skins playing nickle more times than not. Yet he still only chose to feed the ball to McCoy, after he saw McCoy getting hot. Prior to that, he called numerous playaction fakes. Without establishing the run first. Who’s gonna believe the fake!?! U need to run as it sets up plays along the way. And game management…ugh, same old!

The Vick injury reminded me a lot of Tim Tebow’s injury, too. Pretty much exactly the same situation. They were running toward the end zone and got sandwiched in the ribs right on the goalline.

Week 1: Our starting QB is horribly ineffective through 1 quarter of play, is replaced; the new quarterback leads the team to a near-win, coming down to the wire before losing a heartbraker.

Result: Quarterback controversy.

Week 4: Our starting QB is horribly ineffective through 1 quarter of play, is replaced; the new quarterback leads the team to a near-win, coming down to the wire before losing a heartbraker.

Result: The sky is fucking falling.

Not sure if this has been brought up, and don’t take it the wrong way. Desean Jackson is a great player, and a huge part of the offense, but does anyone ever ( even momentarily) ish we had a powerful #1 receiver? There have been plays these last couple weeks that make Jackson look a little on the wimpy side. I mean the one play near the first down marker I swear I thought he was a scrambling quarterback. We should just get him to teach Vick to slide. I understand not wanting Vick to get pulverized, but the other position players need to man up.

I watch the Eagles every Sunday even though I’m not a fan,
some observations:

1) Other teams may be pasing to TEs and RBs not because Hobbs and Samuel are so great (they are actually doing a pretty good job), but because Eagles Safeties and LBs are vulnerable.

2) I’m not sold on Stewart Bradley. He certainly is not a bad player, but I think generally Eagles fans have a much higher opinion of him than the rest of the league. I am not sure he has accomplished enough yet as his career has been so short and he missed so much time because of injury to speak of him among the elite MLBs like a lot of people do. Maybe in time but it doesn’t seem like he is that real impact player that he is supposed to be and even before he got injured it seemed hr got put on a pedestal in Phila a little too quick.

3) Quintin Mikell got run over bad. I never saw Dawkins take a lickin’ like that in Phila or Denver- even when he was playing injured or when the team was 3-13.

4) Sorry, I think Vick has more talent than 98% of QBs who have ever played in the NFL and I don’t think Kolb is a keeper.

Just sayin’………….

mcnabb’s warts were clearly evident in yesterday’s game… he will never be worth a crap and the eagles were wise to let him go…kolb is better than mcnabb and that’s a fact but it’s also not saying much… vick is playing great but he’s not the real answer… the eagles need a real qb… a real line… and some flexibilty on the part of the coach… a

-I honestly thought that Kolb would come in and show why Andy traded McNabb. Last night couldn’t have been have been a worse showing for Kolb. Granted his pocket collapsed too much for him to get in a groove; he didn’t show much progress when it was stable. He had accurate passes on 5 and outs and slants but anything over 10-15 yards was a bust. He either over or under threw a majority of his passes. The only surprise was a good throw into the end zone only to be dropped at the final seconds of the game. Kolb isn’t showing that he has promise to be a starter in my eyes and I say that we continue with Vick until we can get someone else. I think that it was a lofty goal but it failed in the end. I’m so disappointed from last night. Hopefully Vick recovers quickly.
-Shady did well and would have had more yards on the ground if the line did what they were supposed to do. I like how well he caught the ball too. His only fault was a costly fumble.
-WR’s can’t catch balls that are poorly thrown or not thrown to them at all; it was like watching an embarrassing game of college foot ball players against pros. I know that you are supposed to compensate sometimes but it became ridiculous watching the Eagles passing game. DeShawn had some drops but look at what he was thrown. There wasn’t one pass over 15yds. Celek’s TD catch was one of the only bright spots.
-Oline: I don’t know what else to say that hasn’t been said here already. Sad…
Dline: How is it that we were up against a patchwork offensive line and still struggled like the their Oline were all Pro Bolwers? It blows my mind. After Portis left the game I was hoping that we would at least have the advantage of stopping the run but we still struggled.
-LB’s did OK and that one hit from Simms put a bright spot in an otherwise weak showing. Stop with the arm tackles!
-DB’s a little confusion left some open gaps that exploited us. Allen did well and added another pick but it last night’s backfield was average to say the least.
ST: Our Special team players are looking better than last week and the week before. I hope that they continue to improve.
 
All and all, this game was hard to stomach. I thought that we would at least show something. I don’t think that I’m going to predict doom and gloom just yet for the remainder of the season but this was an embarrassing game to say the least.

and I am of the opinion that he has a great arm and he always has. In Atlanta, he CARRIED that team to the playoffs. He only has Algae Crumpler as a real excellent receiver (Roddy White was just learning the trade if I remember), but I remember that he didn’t have many weapons and he ran A LOT- out of necessity.

I think his running skills could stay with him for the next 3-4 years minimum which is an eternity in the NFL. maybe not like that play where he got hurt on – that was unbelieveable! But good enough to stifle other defenses. Look at Mc Nabb’s run (or two?) I forget- but he showed he can still run just enough to 1) get the yards he needs, and 2) make the other team’s defense worry about what he can do. I think Vick could be 43 years old and the defenses would still be covering in practice how to defense Vick as far as running the ball. And, Vick has always been even better and faster than Mc Nabb. Vick is a freak and freaks don’t obey the rules that mortals have to follow.

doesn’t he look like a concussion about to happen every time? Just looks like that to me. He’s not really slow, but maybe he’s not real agile. Something. I just wouldn’t want to be a member of his family watching at home…..