Bird Droppings: An Accident in Levi's
Here, take it before one of us gets murdered, Photo credit: Bob Stanton-USA TODAY Sports
I’m somehow not losing my mind over the loss. If you looked at the schedule before the season and charted the double-U’s and els (and I hate it when people do that), anyone in their right mind would’ve been quite happy with 3-1, including a win in Indy. The Eagles were supposed to lose yesterday. Perhaps it played out differently than we expected, but that game was a long shot. I’ll take 3-1, all day, erryday. But, there are a few problems, which we’ll discuss. To all the shit!
Chip said the offensive line got “whooped up front,” and are “not very good … right now.”
Matt Lombardo: “In modern NFL history, teams that have three returns for a touchdown, which the Eagles did Sunday have a record of 71-1-1. That trend, though, didn’t hold true for the Eagles.”
Reuben Frank is worried about the running game:
Running game ineffective means play action isn’t effective. Here’s a guy who had 17 rushing touchdowns two years ago and led the NFL in rushing last year, and with the game on the line at the 1-yard line, he doesn’t get the ball. Meanwhile, Kelly refuses to give Sproles or Chris Polk any work to change things up. Sproles has three carries the last two games, Polk doesn’t have any. I love Shady and I love what he brings to this team, but Kelly has to acknowledge that it’s not working right now and try to get the ground attack going with someone else.
Jeremy Maclin: “It was an embarrassing display by the offense. I don’t know what else to say. We have to make plays. We have to protect. We have to catch the ball. We have to throw the ball. We have to run the football. We didn’t do any of that today.”
Jimmy Kempski still saw enough to hand out some awards, including the Butterfingers Award to Riley Cooper and the MIA Award to Brent Celek.
Jeff McLane doesn’t think the loss rests on Foles’ shoulders, but he certainly didn’t look great either:
Foles completed less than 50 percent of his passes (21 of 43) and tossed two interceptions. It looked like he was hit by Smith as he threw to Maclin deep on the first pick. The ball came up well short. The second interception ended the game and was a desperation heave. Foles took countless hits, five according to the official score sheet, but I’d gander there were about ten total … He targeted Jeremy Maclin 16 times but they hooked up for only five completions for 68 yards. They’re still lacking chemistry … if Riley Cooper pulls in a perfect pass from his quarterback in the back of the end zone, the Eagles win and Foles’ day doesn’t look as bad.
Passing it twice to win the game
If it were me, playing Madden, which is admittedly the worst test you can apply to any situation, I would’ve run it twice. I know the running game was a mess all day, but so, too, was the passing game. You still have arguably the best running back in football, and he would’ve had two chances to get less than two yards. I can understand passing the ball, and liked the play call on fourth down, but I think you have to run it there. All McCoy has to do is slip one tackle and basically fall forward. If you told any Eagle before the game that the offense would only have to score one touchdown to win, and they’d have two plays with the ball inside the two to do it, everyone would’ve said give it to McCoy. I think Chip overthought that.
Nick Foles
There are a few things to consider before jumping all over Foles and his quasi struggles:
He’s playing behind Jason Peters, Todd Herremans and a bunch of guys who’ll be bagging groceries in a few weeks.
Therefore, there’s no running game to balance the passing game.
He doesn’t have DeSean Jaccson, perhaps the league’s biggest deep threat. There was a ball Foles overthrew to Riley Cooper down the middle yesterday. My dad, with whom I agreed, said: “If that were DeSean, he’d be backing into the end zone, taunting the defender right now.” Last year, that throw would’ve gone to DeSean, and it would’ve been a touchdown:
YOU ARE SLOW
There are times where Foles doesn’t look quite right. He threw another deep ball – an interception – here…
… off his back foot. Now, maybe that’s because he was about to be killed for the second week in a row (his poor family). But the pass looked dangerous before it ever left his hand. He didn’t do that sort of thing last year. How much of that is because of the line and lack of LeSean McCoy’s existence? We don’t know yet.
LeSean McCoy
WHERE HATH YOU GONE?
His absence has become a trend. I don’t think it’s wholly his fault, though. His looks as bouncy as ever. Maybe he’s lost a little bit of his top speed, because last year he gets close to a first down on this play (short gain yesterday)…
… but again, instead of playing behind guys who are going on the offensive, McCoy has men blocking for him who are just doing their best to limit the fatalities to Foles, who, at this point, is basically Kenny from South Park. What was a strength last year for the Eagles – run blocking – is now not even a weakness… it doesn’t exist. The run blocking blows. Let’s compare this McCoy run to the right yesterday…
… to this run to the left from the Eagles’ first drive of the season last year (arguably the most impressive running drive under Kelly):
There are a whole bunch of variables, and this is anecdotal evidence at best, but in the first screenshot, from yesterday, McCoy already has two defenders bearing down on him and no running lanes. In the second screenshot, from last year, McCoy has a hole wide enough to drive his birthday Rolls through. You can guess which one was a 10-yard gain.
EXSPROLSION™
Oh my God, it’s everywhere! All over the place! There’s a mess on the field. Clean it up, clean it up! Ewwwww, it’s in my hair! It’s everywhere! It’s everywhere!
Bac to the Mac
You, sir: sex.
via Deadspin
David Molk
This guy stinks. But worse was his post-game interview with Derrick Gunn, host of GUNN-ON-ONE, where he waxed poetic about his first NFL start. This is great! This is great! No, Molk, it’s not great. You’re not great. You lost and OH MY GOD THEY KILLED NICKY! YOU BASTARD!
Michael Barkann, rightfully, took aim at Molk’s golly-gee-aw-shucks-I’m-on-the-rooster mentality:
Stop getting Nicky killed, David, then it’ll be great.
Riley Cooper
He’s in the process of sending long love letters to DeSean, admitting that he’s not the same without tha pott in his life. As I mentioned before, he’s too slow to be the lone deep threat. He also can’t get separation from his man and should’ve hauled in this would-be game-winner:
Riley’s been the Eagles’ biggest disappointment this year. Taken a huge step back… because he misses DeSean.
The defensive line
They were great yesterday. Not much else you can say. They got pressure on Kaep all day, made him woefully uncomfortable in the pocket, and gave the Eagles a chance to win. Can’t say enough about them. They dominated the line, more so than even the 49ers dominated the Eagles’ offensive line.
Bradley Fletcher
You show me a play where you noticed Bradley Fletcher and it wasn’t in a negative way, and I’ll show you a liar.
Special teams
This has become a strength for the Eagles. Are kidding me? Polk, Sproles, the pressure on the punters, Parkey. Unreal. I enjoy watching them play. Anything can happen. ANYTHING. They’re going to win a game with a big play this year.
Kaep
Is never going to win the big game. He’s McNabb-esque. He’s got the legs (that first down run late in the game hurt), he can make the incredible throw (a few times dropping a ball in there where it had no business being), but man, even before his play clock boners he was letting it run down to :01 and hurrying to get the snap off. WHAT ARE YOU DOING, MAN? There are no variables in time. It is a constant. How is this even a thing? I was waiting for Troy Aikman to rip his headset off and leave the booth with a shiv destined for Kaep’s neck if he blew another timeout.
Troy Aikman
I enjoy him. He’s the best Sunday analyst.
