During the third quarter of this game Troy Aikman said, "One word comes to mind when I see Kelly green. Pain" Troy's statement was right then and now. The Eagles season opener against the Green Bay Packers resembled a reverse "House Of Pain" game and saw five Eagles starters go down. Let me clear my throat and do my best Andy Reid impression. First, injuries.
Leonard Weaver left the game with a truly gruesome knee injury. His leg literally bent the wrong direction. Andy Reid announced that he has a torn ACL and is done for the year.
Also done for the year is center Jamaal Jackson, who suffered torn biceps. Reid said it's likely that he's done for the year as well. It's a pretty heartbreaking injury for Jackson, who had fought back valiantly from offseason knee surgery to get ready for the season opener.
QB Kevin Kolb & LB Stewart Bradley were both taken out of the game at halftime with concussions. The scary part was that both players were re-inserted into the game after they appeared to suffer their concussions. Both players will need to pass concussion tests from the team and an independent physician before they cleared to play again. Reid did say that if Kolb is healthy, he will be the starter next week.
The last injury was to LT Jason Peters, who sprained his right knee but returned a few series later.
We'll take a look at the actual game after the jump.
We'll start first with the bad.. and there's plenty of it to go around. The offense got off to an absolutely dreadful start. Kevin Kolb did not look sharp, the offense line was giving up tons of pressure, the running game couldn't get moving, and Michael Vick was seemingly in the game every other play. By the end of the half, they had as many penalty yards as they did yards of net offense.
There's certainly been a lot of panic over the performance of Kevin Kolb, who went just 5-10 for 24 yards and was sacked twice. However, let's put his performance in context. He attempted 10 passes over two quarters of play. Much of that time he was being pulled in and out of the game as Michael Vick saw more time than we've ever seen him have in the role he played last year. Three of his ten passes came after he suffered a concussion. So let's just take it easy before we panic about him. We still need to see a lot more.
The awful early performance of the offense has overshadowed the poor defense a bit. The Eagles D gave up 27 points today and effectively put the game out of reach with how poor they were late in the second half and early in the third. They gave up 17 points in about a 14 minute span there. It was extra disappointing to watch after they got off to such a red hot start. They did some good things sacking Aaron Rodgers three times and picking him off twice, plus they stood strong in the fourth quarter... but the Eagles won't win too many games where they give up 27 points.
Now, the good. The good has to start with Michael Vick, who finished the game with a 101.9 QB rating and ran for 103 yards. He looked as good as he ever has running the ball and his throws were good and bad, but good enough to move the team with 175 yards through the air. He turned a blowout in the third quarter to a game where they were driving for a tying score in the fourth quarter. If he has to start next week, I think people will be much more confident in him after this game than they were after the preseason.
The comeback at the end made the game exciting and lifted spirits a bit, but make no mistake about it... this was a devastating game. They lost two key starters for the year and potentially Bradley & Kolb for a couple weeks. This will be a tough one to recover from.