At 3-9 the Eagles are guaranteed to finish with a losing record. It seems like 75% of the team’s starters are injured. We have set records in past weeks for opposing QB ratings. Multiple coaches have already been fired, with more to follow. It’s stressed that teams need to be strong up the middle in sports– our offense is run by an undrafted center, a 3rd round QB, a 7th round RB, and a 7th round FB. Clearly, lots of disappointing things to talk about, so why not start my podcasting career off now? Andrew Rubenstein, fellow blogger (http://redskinsbarca.wordpress.com/) but rival Redskin fan, joins me in the podcast below to discuss the up’s and down’s in the NFC East this year, the Sunday Night matchup with Philly and Dallas, and Monday Night’s between the Giants and Redskins.
Losses always hurt, especially to the Cowboys, but Eagles fans should be proud of last night’s effort. Unlike Philly, Dallas was getting starting players healthy, and they have wild card hopes to play for. The Cowgirls were favored by 10.5 points heading into the game, but the Eagles gave them their best shot, only losing 38-33, even leading most of the game. Still, a good team would have been able to finish this game out for a victory. But yet again turnovers killed us, and again the defense could not get a stop to get the offense back on the field.
It’s Bryce Brown’s 2nd great game in a row, but another late fumble by Brown killed the team’s drive and momentum. The “big Mo” cannot be underestimated in this league. Still, have to love what you see from Brown after his 2nd game in a row with 2 TD’s and 170 rushing yards. But his lack of experience is evident with his loose ball control and his high fumbling rate. But this should be a fixable issue. Brown’s last start before this year was in high school. He needs some more carries to shake the rust off and become accustomed to NFL defensive talent.
Foles made significant strides since last week’s game. The rookie QB displayed touch, good pocket presence, and he led an impressive drive at the end of the half for points.
He did throw a few near picks like in his earlier performances, and he missed open receivers on a couple of other plays (remember that failed 2 pt conversion? Brown was wide open, he even could’ve run untouched into the endzone as well). Foles looked good though, and he gave the Eagles a great chance to win. By all accounts he’s very intelligent, can read defenses well, and has great anticipation and feel on the field. You can tell he does a good job keeping his eyes downfield and working through his progressional, but he needs to work on looking off defenses, you could see multiple times he’d lock onto a receiver, telepathing his next move to the defense.
Again, the defense was miserable. They could never get a stop. Receivers were left wide open. As Collingsworth stressed throughout the game, the safeties are leaving the middle of the field wide open, and its happening far too often. But Brandon Graham played well starting for Jason Babin. Ryans was solid again, as was really the whole defense for portions of the game. But eventually they just did not have an answer for Dez Bryant and Jason Witten. The play of Rodgers-Cromartie, Boykin, Allen, and Coleman was particularly exposed. Often Philly’s corners played too far off the receivers, giving them too much of a cushion. This was especially clear on Bryant’s 9 yard TD catch against DRC.
On the brightside the Eagles played tough, for divisional pride, and looked the better team for much of the game, despite everything going against them so far this season.
Here’s a postgame interview with Bryce Brown, part hero and part scape goat after the loss.
And on the not-so-brightside, below are some of the pathetic stats the Eagles have managed to rack up this season.
- Defensive Fumble Recoveries: Opponents (16), Eagles (3)
- Defensive Interceptions: Opponents (12), Eagles (7)
- This week’s punt return by Damaris Johnson was the Eagles’ first defensive or special teams TD of the year. Just to be wasted on a loss of course.
- Philly has on average outgained their opponents over the season, yet they are 3-9.
- 28th in the NFL in sacks, despite being hyped as having one of the best defensive lines in the league before the start of the year.
Cheers, but remember, only 4 more Eagles games to watch until next September, try to enjoy them, even if there’s always stress.
The Eagles Nest 