Dave’s Take: As the saying goes, ‘a win’s a win.’ Yet to me this Eagles victory seems like it could easily have been an unfavorable blowout if Jay Cutler were — well, anyone else. Perhaps I’m holding the birds to the standard that they were held to at the season’s start, but there were definitely glaring missed opportunities for the men in midnight green. With a different week, the Eagles had different issues. It wasn’t the inability to rush the football, it was turnovers. It wasn’t penalties, it was missed tackles. well, that last one has kinda been a constant.
LeSean McCoy has amply stepped in the shoes of Brian Westbrook (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)
The Eagles looked like they could have let a tackling dummy slip away after the first half effort they put towards the Browns” ball-carriers Sunday night. The most blatant example was when Earl Bennett was met by three Eagle defenders but eluded them for a first down. If there was a stat for how many yard the Bears got on missed tackles, it would definitely raise some eyebrows. Asante Samuel left the game with a “stinger” and didn’t return for the second half, meanwhile Sheldon Brown has a lingering hamstring problem and was able to play the whole contest. Luckily the Eagles defense was opposing Jay Cutler who had a quarterback rating of 63.2. The only offense the Eagles let through for the most part was Robbie Gould who opened Chicago’s scoring with three field goals and naturally sat on my fantasy football bench while bringing in 14 unused points.
On the offensive side of the ball, the Eagles had two players who were home for the (almost) holiday. Donovan McNabb and Jason Avant both have connections to the Chicago area. They both put together some nice stats. Jason Avant picked up where he left off last week, scoring a touchdown. He had 26 yards on the night. Donovan McNabb made a perfect example of what I’ve thought of him all year. He was was 23-for-32, and threw for two touchdowns, one of which being a 48-yard bomb to DeSean Jackson. Because of the big throw, no one talks about the inconsistent throws at the feet or over the head of his intended receivers. Those were throws that should have connected and would have added to his 101.6 quarterback rating.
Another positive for the Eagles offense was — and it’s taken eight weeks — Michael Vick. The Wildcat finallyworked. He ran the ball for what was by far his best play of the season, a 34-yard run for a first down. So the Eagles offensive line is roughly 1-for-20 in trying to create a hole for the great athlete. Also, it should be mentioned that LeSean McCoy ran for 99 yards and a touchdown. I really don’t think he gets enough credit for filling the shoes of once great Brian Westbrook. Critics have said that he isn’t as good or as useful as Brian Westbrook, but this season Westbrook himself is not as effective as in years past. In Westbrook’s absence this year the Eagles are 3-1 and McCoy has accumulated 319 yards and three touchdowns rushing and 80 yards receiving. I have no qualms about him being the starter in the Eagles backfield. In six games as a starter, Westbrook has 381 combined yards and two touchdowns. read more…
In Week 10 I continued his mastery of picks and would have hit double digit wins, but Aaron and Jeff hijacked Bill Belichick’s headset and called in a couple plays that led to a Patriots loss. Thanks guys.
Anyway, with another week in the books we’ve learned a few things:
• Brian Westbrook should be put on the shelf for at least the rest of the season
• Bud Adams is a senile old bastard who felt the need to rub a loss in the face of Buffalo Bills fans who later lost their head coach, Dick Jauron.
• The Bengals are homophobic. At least we assume this because they signed RB Larry Johnson.
————————–
Season Up To Date:
Dave: 98-46 (upset picks: 6-4) [last week: 9-6]
Jeff: 93-51 (upset picks: 4-6) [last week: 9-6]
Aaron: 90-54 (upset picks: 4-6) [last week: 8-7]
—–
**Byes: None
—
Thursday, November 19
(4-5) 
@ (4-5) 
8:20 pm NFL Network
Aaron: 
Dave: 
Jeff:
–-
Sunday, November 22
(6-3) 
@ (2-7) 
1:00 pm CBS
Aaron: 
Dave: Jeff:
–-
(9-0) 
@ (1-8) 
1:00 pm CBS
Aaron: 
Dave: Jeff:
–
(5-4) 
@ (5-4) 
1:00 pm FOX
Aaron: 
Dave: Jeff:
Dave’s Take: On a day where Donovan McNabb largely looked sharp and threw for 450 yards, and Jason Avant caught for a career-high 156 yards, the effort was wasted. They knew early in the week that it would not be pretty on the defensive side as they lost Ellis Hobbs to the injured reserve list and Joselio Hanson to a four-game suspension. But it wasn’t the defense that was to blame for the loss either. Well, with a small reservoir of problems the Eagles have had this season, the reasons they lost the game against the San Diego Chargers were familiar: play-calling, short-yardage conversions, time management, and penalties.
Donovan McNabb and his 450 passing yards couldn't pull the Eagles into the win column on Sunday (AP Photo/Lenny Ignelzi).
Two of those factors heavily involve the coaching staff. I’ve seen a lot of support for Andy Reid and the coaching staff recently, especially when I’ve been ragging on him so much. The argument for Camp Reid seems to be that he’s been here and largely successful for 11 seasons and should not be second guessed. But when does that honeymoon end? This team has been inconsistent all year long and some of the play calling has been shockingly awful at times. Today the Eagles were down 14 points and had a great opportunity, first and goal from the one yard line. Now, the Eagles are a pass first offense. That’s the nature of the West Coast offense, but on this particular Sunday they threw 82 percent of the time. So when they got down there and on first down ran one of their 13 running plays on the day (for a grand total of 29 yards), a run for no gain by Leonard Weaver, they abandoned and went to the pass. After that didn’t work and a strange appearance from Eldra Buckley up the middle was unsuccessful as well and the Eagles coaching staff chose to go for a field goal. As Governor Ed Rendell said on the post-game show, had they run Leonard Weaver four times, they would have gotten six points for sure.
read more…
It’s a great time of the year. Football on Thursdays. You know what that means? That means Thanksgiving is quickly approaching, which of course means….TURDUCKIN!
If only John Madden were on the air to show us how it’s done.
————————–
Season Up To Date:
Dave: 89-40 (upset picks: 6-3) [last week: 8-5]
Jeff: 84-75 (upset picks: 3-6) [last week: 6-7]
Aaron: 82-47 (upset picks: 3-6) [last week: 7-6]
—–
**Byes: Texans, Giants
—
Thursday, November 12
(4-4) 
@ (3-5) 
8:20 pm NFL Network
Aaron: 
Dave: 
Jeff:
–-
Sunday, November 15
(1-7) 
@ (7-1) 
1:00 pm FOX
Aaron: 
Dave: Jeff:
–-
(6-2) 
@ (2-6) 
1:00 pm CBS
Aaron: 
Dave: Jeff:
–
(5-3) 
@ (3-5) 
1:00 pm FOX
Aaron: 
Dave: Jeff:
Dave’s Take: The Eagles had a big opportunity Sunday night on a big, national stage; and they fumbled, missed and penalized themselves out of contention for the title of ‘top dog’ in the NFC East. For a long time in this game the Eagles had a 13-10 win, but without that score bug sitting at the bottom of the screen you never would have known from the players’ body language or the plays they were making.
Mike Jenkins brought down the second interception Donovan McNabb threw Sunday night. Jeremy Maclin was the intended receiver on both plays (AP Photo/Matt Slocum).
Donovan McNabb threw two interceptions and only one touchdown. He was a mere 16-for-30, barely over 50 percent throwing the ball for a paltry 62 quarterback rating. He was among the chief reasons the Eagles lost this game. He was once again wildly inconsistent. It seems as though he has a Jekyll and Hyde syndrome that he can not shake. In the last couple of weeks he was throwing precise bombs down the field to the likes of DeSean Jackson and Jeremy Maclin. Sunday night he was awful. A lot of his throws were well above the heads of his intended receivers, but one of the interceptions was not his fault. He made a routine pass over the middle to Maclin who let it go through his hands, off his helmet and falling into the hands of Gerald Sensabaugh.
Another offensive struggle came in short yardage situations. LeSean McCoy has shown that he has serious skills, is probably the future of the running back position for the Eagles, and can be explosive. But Sunday he tried to do too much when he needed to do one thing; lower his shoulder and push forward. Perhaps on those plays the Eagles should have given the ball to Leonard Weaver, but he is the featured back and needs to understand he can’t deke and juke his way out of every tackle when the game is on the line. The Eagles were only 1-for-4 on third or fourth and one. That’s pathetic.
If Donovan McNabb was the number one reason for the loss tonight, Andy Reid was 1A. As he has throughout his career, his challenges were overturned and ill-timed. Both were on the placement of the football and while he almost had to challenge the second one because of the hole the team was in, the first challenge was just plain old stupid. The Eagles were about an inch and a half short and despite their poor showing in short yardage should have been able to push it through for a first down.
Aside from the misuse of his timeouts, Andy Reid made a very strange call at the end of the game. He had an opportunity to go for it on fourth down when the team needed a touchdown, but instead opted for a 52-yard field goal. While David Akers made good on that opportunity, his longest field goal since 2007, the move really didn’t make sense seeing as how three points really didn’t help the team very much. The defense couldn’t hold the Cowboys with no time outs and about four minutes on the clock. They struggled to stop the Cowboys from moving down the field all game long, even if they did only allow two touchdowns. read more…
