FanPost

Things I don't get . . .



- How Nick Cole possibly has the starting job at RG yet.

I would love to see the season totals for when the Eagles rush to the right-hand side with Cole/Justice because it just seems that neither one of these guys gets a push. By my count, the Eagles ran the ball 6 times behind Cole and got 17 yds. He just doesn't generate any real push on running plays. Eagles had one play all night that really worked running running behind Cole where McCoy picked up 8 yards.

Cole also really struggled in pass protection too just as he did the week before. This time it wasn't his inability pick up the blitz as it was his ability to straight up block and pick up the numerous stunts the Chicago defensive line was doing through out the game. Gave up another sack this week and his inability to pick up a stunt with Justice contributed to another. In a season where the offensive line has been found more wanting than not, Cole is by far the biggest offender.

Terrible at C in limited time and not much better at RG. Team are going to continue to attack the Eagles on the right-hand side largely because of Cole's shitty play.

- How the Kick/Punt Coverage units continue to be generally awful each week including tonight.

Some of this is due to the short kickoffs with limited hang time that Akers had tonight but the Bears had the ball out past the 40-yd on kickoffs 4 times tonight. One of those was due to the offside kick to end the game. On 2 of those drives, the Bears scored TDs. The worst part - It was freaking Danieal Manning doing most of the damage and not Devin Hester. That's unacceptable.

This simply isn't a good-enough defense to be counted on to prevent teams from moving the ball against them with a fair amount of regularity. Opposing teams also have had their way with this team in the red zone too (can't really figure this year but you figure part of it has to be just luck but there also has to be a scheming component and a ffailure by the players). Giving opposing teams a really short field just compounds the problem.

At this point, I have given up that the kick/punt coverage units with improve this season. For a guy who was as highly-touted as Bobby Aprile was, you have to wonder what went wrong for their coverage units to be among the worst 4-5 units in the NFL this year.

- How for at least the 3rd season in a row this offense which puts up a ton of points and really moves the ball up and down the field is so mediocre in the red zone.

This game was decided in the red zone tonight. Eagles failed to execute all game long in the red zone and the Bears made the most of their chances. With McNabb gone, it looks more and more likely that most of the blame here lies with Mornhinweg and Reid. When Kolb was in there, this red zone attack struggled and it hasn't improved that much with Vick despite Vick's ability to scramble for a TD & to keep plays alive with his legs. I would love to see a more detailed analysis and breakdown on why this team has struggled to put the ball in the end zone when they are in the red zone the last 3 years. Another area where I am pretty much not expecting much improve on for the rest of the season. Good thing is that this offense should still put their share of points up on the board.

- How the offense has to be relied upon to put up 27-28 points every week for this team to have a good chance to win.

There has been really one game all season (the Jags game) where this defense dominated for 4 quarters. That's it. They have had some other good overall games (Giants game last week, 'Skins game at the Linc) but overall this is a unit that gives up their share of yardage and points. Maybe they continue to win with this formula but generally have to rely upon your offense to put up 27-28 points to have a good shot to win is a sure-fire recipe to flame out in the playoffs.

By this point in the season, you generally have a pretty good take on the season including the team you root for. This offense is incredibly explosive even if they have a mediocre offensive line at best. The problem is that this team's defense and special teams haven't shown me that they aren't good enough for this team to sustain a playoff run to get the Super Bowl despite playing in a pretty wide-open NFC this year. Maybe I am wrong and things change but I see yet another year where this team gets into the playoffs and gets bounced out along the way before the Super Bowl due to defensive and special team deficiencies.