-McNabb is clearly not ready to be back on a football field. When pressured, McNabb's mobility and ability to improvise are not there, making him just barely above an average quarterback in this league. Until McNabb shows he's healthy, this team will have much difficulty making any kind of impact. What worries me if that McNabb won't really be healthy until November, so the season may be over very shortly. McNabb's decision skills, accuracy, acceleration/burst, ability to improvise and confidence are absolutely shot right now. What happened to his confidence with Reggie Brown? It's clearly evident that he has none in the 3rd year receiver. Now without a good tight end or Westbrook, McNabb has no help. More importantly, the Eagles CONTINUE to abandon the run.
-In a night where the Eagles rushing attack averaged 5 yards a carry, the Eagles found themselves running straight down the field multiple times only to go 3 and out on 3 straight passing plays. The offense cannot continue to run like this. They don't have the receivers, the quarterback doesn't have the ability or confidence, the o line obviously cannot pass protect, the coach cannot make any kind of in game adjustments to help this team, etc etc. The bump and run is our worst nightmare on offense, and could end our season very quickly. Are there any quick fixes? I don't think there are.
-Give it up for the defense. While the front four wasn't everything I hoped it to be last night, you have to be proud of how the young linebackers and defensive backfield performed last night. With Lito and Dawk out, I expected the Giants to go deep on a consistent basis to Shockey and Burress all night long. I haven't watched the tape yet, but it seemed that Mikell and Sheldon Brown had extremely solid showings. IMO Sheldon Brown is quietly having a career season. William James looks completely lost on defense.
-Mike Patterson had a very very good game, as well as Broderick Bunkley. Patterson and Bunkley have been strong all season so far. It's a shame the offense is in such a funk because these guys have been outstanding and would get more recognition. It's obvious that that Bunkley and Patterson are really getting off the snap extremely quickly.
-Gocong is really developing much much quicker than I expected. On one stand out Giants rush to the right side, Gocong completely blew up the gap and caused Ward to find a new hole and step back a few yards before getting a 3 or 4 yard loss. His coverage on Shockey was also very strong last night. What else can you say about Omar Gaither? He not only looks like a starting MLB in this league, but he looks like a stud. He may not be the biggest linebacker in the league, but the dude is a straight out playmaker. I've been so impressed with this kid all year long. He was obviously the player of the game on defense with 9 tackles and an interception. Spikes had an ok day. He seemed to have trouble getting to the quarterback and shredding blocks.
-Overall. We lost this game due to the coaches inability to make adjustments. There is no excuse for leaving Winston Justice out there to dry and not give him any kind of help. The tight ends, running backs continued to look over Strahan's shoulder all night long. What game was Reid or Morningweg watching? This is the kind of nonsense that will continue to hurt the Eagles' playoff chances all night long. Even worse, Reid seems to have the horrible tendency to abandon the only element that seems to be working on offense all together.
-Stat of the game: Eagles pass run ratio was 31-10 in the second half. Despite all the offensive struggles, the Eagles were only down a couple of scores the majority of the game. There is no excuse to abandon the run so quickly. I hold this loss solely on the coaching staff, especially Reid and Morningweg for their failure to make adjustments and not get their team prepared. This team showed zero intensity, zero sense of urgency, zero heart, I was extremely ashamed to be a fan of this team last night. While the race for winning the division is now over, I am extremely worried about this team making the playoffs. It's not the injuries. Forget the injuries. Would Westbrook had helped last night? Sure. But check this out:
-We have: an offense that can be easily exploited, an offensive line that is horrendous has pass protection, an offense that abandons the run in the second half, a coaching staff that cannot make in game adjustments or get their team prepared, a quarterback that is not healthy and can't improvise making him an average quarterback, injuries to many key players that seem to be worse than Reid has told us, a rookie LT which is one of the most important positions in football, I could go on and on.
-Simply, not good.
-What are the answers? Are their answers? I don't have any. Reid and Morningweg deserve their criticism for the next couple of weeks. They simply called an extremely poor game last night. Actually, 3 out of the 4 games they've had very poor games. Does that change? Hopefully you have the answers because I don't.
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I agree with some of what you said but not all. Yes Donovan isn't fully healthy yet, but to put any kind of blame of last night on him I think is unfair, Peyton Manning couldn't have had any success with that kind of protection.. I think there are three main reasons why the Eagles struggles so much on offense last night..
1. The offensive line- A unit that was so strong last year has underwhelmed so far this season and looked awful last night.. Winston Justice in particular got manhandeled by Osi.. No quarterback can have any kind of success with that kind of pressure
2. The receivers not getting seperation- What happend in the Detroit game was a mirage, these receivers are still not very good, Kevin Curtis is the best of this group, but still doesn't create enough seperation to be considered anything more then an average #1 receiver..
3. The playcall- Was awful.. For all the offensive line woes they have been excellent in run protection this season including last night.. Buckhalter had a good night, and might have had a great one if they would have ran the ball a lot more.. They clearly were strugggling passing the football, so why continue to try and pass over and over and over again.. I thought Mortingweg liked running the football, unlike Reid.. I guess I was wrong.. Also, how could you not give Winston Justice any help? You think after giving up 2 sacks and a lot of close calls pressure wise they'd give Justice some help.. He's not william thomas, he's a young kid whose not ready to handle a big time DE like Osi one on one in this league..
I don't think your boy Gocong had as good a game as you say he did... I agree he did some nice things, breaking up some run plays.. Doing a terrific job covering Jeremey Shockey for most of the game.. However I saw him miss not one, or two, but three tackles that turned into big games, I don't ever like seeing missed tackles, especially from my starting linebacker.. Gaither did play excellent though, yet again.. If he keeps playing like this throughout the season he really should be a pro bowler... I think he's playing as good as Trotter ever played, even in his prime..
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