Sober Afterthoughts: I am Worried

I guess your opinion about the O-line kind of ties in to my sentiment about Vick being under pressure so much. I agree about the Patriots, they were the one team I had in mind while writing this.

Our defense is pretty much shit, but i think this team reminds me alot of the 99 Rams who pretty much relied on their offense . As long as our defense can create turnovers and clamp down like they did in the 2nd half i will remain optimistic. And im so with u on the Brees thing, hes pretty much the only guy who i think i would be afraid of in the playoffs. Funny thing tho and i wonder wat the actual totals were for the game but it sure seemed like Eli didnt want nothing 2 do with Samuel, i wonder how many times he was targeted in that game, it couldnt have been for than a couple. Do u know????

I think its an extremely risky strategy to concede that the D is pretty much terrible for three quarters and then hoping they clamp down at the same time that the opposing D allows Vick to go to work. I just don’t see that working deep into the playoffs. These next two games provide an opportunity for final adjustments.

Probably overly influenced by how well we played against them, without Vick no less. And I’d rather see the Bears than the Giants again. The Saints we’d be able to score on, but they’d be able to rack up points on us.

I agree with Leon’s overall theme that we’re not really a perfect team you can expect to dominate, and there’s a lot to worry about, especially with no Bradley/Allen/Graham on D. If Justice plays though, that seems to make a big difference on the OL, and this team for 6 weeks or so has seemed like one that will need to the offense to carry it while the defense is adequate.

It’s not like the Eagles are the Super Bowl favorites. But they do have an alluring magic about them that maybe makes us believe they can overcome all their wrongs.

running against the Giants came right up the middle.

The Giants (with the exception of one 3rd down play) brought pressure around the outside knowing Vick liked to move out of the pocket…in the 4th Q he used it to his advantage and just ran right through the vacated middle

I’d like to see us beat that pressure without Vick’s legs though. I’d like a TE screen, or quick slant to back the Def up ALSO

we’re scoring about 30/game. If we can hold teams to 20 or even 25ish, we’re good.

I just don’t trust us NOT to give up 30 also. We gave up a then season high points to the Bears

This is not a defensive stalwart. They have to be adequate and cause a few turnovers early, or get a defensive score, or play with a lead.

I did not really feel great about them coming back on the field once we tied at at 31, but they’re good in spurts and with the momentum.

This is one reason the bye is so important. If they were playing like the best overall team, I wouldn’t care that much if they had four games, but this seems like a team that would benefit more than usual from only having to play three

I’m worried because Andy’s record also indicates that we have never gotten over the hump. And I don’t just care about the NFC. I want to be able to beat whoever gets to the Superbowl from the AFC, probably the Patriots. And at this stage these problems will allow them to bury us.

Like I said, if Patterson didnt give up 3 touchdowns because he was playing like a 1 legged blind man, no one would be worried. Hopefully he learns from his mistakes and plays smarter.

and just beat one of our biggest rivals in the biggest way possible

I don’t know I think 44-6 was beating them in the biggest way possible. The comeback was Epic but honestly we should have put up 28 in the FIRST 7 minutes and 28 seconds not the last.

For some reason I do not want to see the Giants again. The revenge factor, the beating the same team three times in a year, etc. I just think that all of the pressure would be on us. Set up game.

Another reason to root for the Packers is that they will have something to play for the final week against the Bears.

Bottom line is that the Eagles can’t worry about this stuff. They have two winnable games at home and need to take care of business. Two seed is huge, and I think that it is quite possible that the Bears lose one of their remaining games.

Well as far as living and dying on it at least. McD thought on our D is the front four needs to be hitting home on there own w/o blitz. Elaborate coverage, minumal blitz (thats what i think in his defense at least). I never really sat well with JJs (RIP) Blitz when we get to the playoffs. All year we would hold teams to 14-17 points a game then run into a good coach/ offense that somehow shreds us for 21+. After all if we have a strong suit on D, shouldn’t it be the D line?

It wont happen. Correct me if I’m wrong but Vick faced a lot of outside pressure when the blitz came. A run up the guts would be the perfect call against that kind of pressure. With guys like McCoy and Harrison that should be childs play not to metion our run block dwarfs our pass block for the most part. Am I making sense? ( I’m really asking)

… would allow a lot of us to die happy men. Or Eaglesgrls.

i can relate to leon’s concern. the patriots get a pass b/c they have 3 rings already and they’ve proven that they could go all the way even with a mediocre defense. i think once the eagles have at least one, we’ll all feel a bit more optimistic.

then again, we could be cleveland fans right? there’s always a silver lining…

The difference between the Eagles and the Patriots is that the Patriots have won a superbowl (or a few) not too long ago. A win is just another bump in the road during the chase for another trophy.

To a lot of Eagles fans, winning isn’t good enough. They’re already thinking two steps ahead to figure out if this team is good enough to win the big game. Historically, winning has not been our problem, just look at Andy Reid’s success during his tenure. Our problem has been winning the bigger games in the playoffs/superbowl. That’s why some people are already concerned.

for years we have been able to win and be good enough to get to the playoffs. However, every year we identify problems during the regular season. They may not immediately end our season, but you can bet that problems in the redzone, inaccurate passing, lack of an effective running game etc eventually caught up with us. I think we all know what the problems are this year. Based on the recent past, my concern is that we will once again be tripped up by obvious problems that we are unable to address in time. We’ve been down this road before, almost every season.

Winning is winning. No team is perfect. You mentionned the Pats up there. They have a 28th ranked Defense. Worst than the Eagles 13th ranked Defense. So why isnt everyone worried about the Patriots?

They sound just like us. I swear to you.

Part of having a team that’s good year after year is your expectations are raised, you know good football when you see it, and likewise, when you don’t.

Also when there’s roughly 8 teams who look like they could get hot and win the SB, angst is natural even for the favorites.

when the defense is rushing 7…

I loved what Vick did, but I want us to have more ways than just the awesomeness of VIck to beat a heavy blitz.

This IS the time to make adjustments.

In the NFL, it always is. No two gameplans are the same.

But even more so when you have new players taking on bigger roles this late in the season, your last regular season games are a great time to adjust (or play things close to the vest and bust out your adjustments by surprise)

last year, the Cowboys had our #…we never had a chance in those last two games. We looked bad, they looked good, we didn’t matchup well, there wasn’t a chance from the beginning to the end, and I never thought we would win.

I hoped. I hoped we’d squeak something out, but I knew the chances were terrible.

You guys have had fourth quarter leads in both games. These were both games that came to the very end…we’ve won both, but you can understand if we don’t feel comfortable in a third game when the first two were so hard

… but we know if we see you again, it’s not going to be an easy W. Eagles earned both wins, but they were fortunate as well.

Trailed in the 4th of both games; in other words, if one play hadn’t happened exactly the way it did, either of those games could’ve been a loss.

That to me is the mark of a tough game.