Bird Droppings: All the Shit That Wasn't Fit to Print
Is this the new 10 mode?
I have no idea where to begin. So much happened yesterday. SO MUCH. Let’s just get to the shit.
Foles
This screenshot comes from Drew Balis. Foles, who has “struggled” thus far, leads the NFL in passing yards.
Nick hasn’t been perfect, but yesterday was easily his best game of the year. Every quarterback is going to miss some passes – every one – and Nick certainly missed a few, but that pass to Jordan Matthews, this one…
… is one of the best you’ll ever see. I was sitting somewhat behind Foles in the opposite corner – the same vantage point I had for his end zone pick in Week 1 – and there was absolutely no lane. That had no business being caught.
Jordan Matthews
I’m not quite ready to anoint him Baby T.O. the way Twitter wanted to yesterday, but there are similarities. He’s a nice, big target on short out routes and in the slot. It seems like he has a habit of stumbling into catches, but that can by ironed out over time. He and Foles appear to already have a connection a la Foles and Riley Cooper last year.
Riley Cooper
I’m pretty sure I saw him walk over to DeSean yesterday and whisper in his ear, “I miss you, bro. Miss you a lot.” He’s the one player that appears to be impacted by DeSean’s departure. OK game yesterday, but only nine catches in three games.
Jeremy Maclin
Back to the Mac.
Receivers
They played well yesterday. The Redskins obviously focused on stopping the run (which they did), and that left a lot of space outside the box. I don’t think the Eagles are a passing team the way they appeared to be yesterday, but they’re versatile enough to zig when the opponents zags. And they did all this with only a few catches from the tight ends. Both Kelly and Foles spoke about it after the game– the run wasn’t there, so they had to go to the air. They had… to FLY?
LeSean McCoy
Matt Lombardo on 97.5 last night, playing Cary Williams advocate, wondered if Shady was one of the guys tired from Chip’s bootcamp. My 20 cents? He looks as bouncy as ever. Teams now know that the Eagles are a run-first team, and the Redskins decided stopping the run was going to be their focus. They did a good job, but it had nothing to do with LeSean being tired. He pulled off some dirty moves in the backfield, but there’s only so many defenders you can outrun. That number is somewhere below eight, which is what it seemed like the Redskins threw at LeSean every time. And then there’s the issue of THE ENTIRE OFFENSIVE LINE BEING IN SHAMBLES. Let’s not forget that McCoy is missing up to three important run blockers on some plays.
Darren Sproles
When he fumbled that ball, I thought: “We’ve reached peak EXSPROLSION.” He’s a Tomas Perez. That’s not to compare his talents to that of the Phillies’ pinch-hitter extraordinaire of yesteryear (Sproles is proportionally WAY more talented at his sport and I hate that I even just wrote that), but to caution against wanting too much Sproles. Once upon a time, everyone thought Perez should be an everyday player (really), but after too much use, he became easily exposed. Sproles is a good player, but he needs to be the Robin to McCoy’s Batman. Without Shady, there’s no Darren. The latter is a change-of-pace back who’s probably a slightly better runner than previous coaches have given him credit for. That’s not a knock, either. In his role, he’s GREAT. But he can’t carry the load when McCoy has nothing. And he should never resort to post-game pies for attention. Just keep backing that ass up, Darren.
Chris Polk
He’s still running to that end zone. In my mind.
Things are different in ZWR’s mind
Malcolm Jenkins
Where have you been all my life?!
Bradley Fletcher and Cary Williams
They made Pierre Garcon look like Jerry Rice yesterday. Fletcher, in particular, was getting beat all over the place in the first half. Willams got smoked on the play down the sideline. I have little confidence in either guy, but…
Brandon Boykin
Is outstanding. Best coverage back on this team. Problem: he’s so good in the slot that moving him to the outside could disrupt all flow. Everyone’s calling for him to take one of the top two spots, but doing so may be subtraction by addition or something. He’s so good in his role you almost don’t want to mess with it. Of course, when Cary Williams inevitably gets cut…
Ditka is a dick
So is Chris Carter
Someone told me McNabb said the same thing on FOX, but I can’t find video of it.
Five
Speaking of… he’s holding a Reddit AMA today. That’ll be fun. And he once again criticized Foles’ consistency.
Burning
Replays
After hiring a dedicated replay guy, the Eagles went 3-0 on challenges yesterday. Hashtag unconventional.
Trololololol
Social media
Love these interactive Tweet charts from the Eagles.
Fly
Chris “The Pounding Fathers” Cooley is a good sport:
Love Parkey
Beau Allen is having the time of his life, and he owes it all to Cody Parkey:
“I can give you stars! Look! Look!”
LeSean McCoy’s maybe-concussion would be the 81st of the NFL season.
Slow starts
Reuben Frank — like the rest of us — digs this team’s second-half toughness, but thinks they gotta do something about their first half play:
At some point, they’re going to have to figure out how to start stronger because you’re not going to keep getting away with digging yourself big early holes and climbing out of them. Not against the league’s best teams. The Eagles are the first team in NFL history to allow 17 first-half points in each of the first three games of a season and go 3-0. They’ve been a lot of fun to watch, and they’ve certainly shown an ability to overcome adversity and play better as the game goes on. But it’s going to catch up with them. They need to be a 60-minute team, and they haven’t been yet.
Boykin flop
World class flop https://t.co/BpUsF9DvoH
— Dan Steinberg (@dcsportsbog) September 21, 2014
Real world or exercise?
Todd Herremans on the Eagles’ depleted O-line: “We work on the worse-case scenario. That was the worst-case scenario.”
97.5 post-game show
I was flipping around yesterday when I was stuck in the NovaCare lot for three days, and I had the misfortune of stumbling upon 97.5’s post-game show again. Phil From Mt. Airy and Barrett Brooks live from the Hard Rock Cafe. It’s awful. Brooks seems unprepared and all too eager to agree with Phil’s jackasstic views. Less than three minutes in and Phil was already talking about how this wasn’t the week they should discuss Foles’ eventual replacement (“not until they lose their eighth or ninth game”), but in doing so he was obviously discussing how Foles will eventually need to be replaced. You talk about being stubbornly tone-deaf. The Eagles are 3-0, 10-1 in their last 11 regular season games. Foles, despite “struggling,” leads the league in a passing. The Eagles just beat a division rival, with whom they literally fought. And all From Mt. Airy wanted to discuss was the passes Foles missed. I respect Phil’s everyman approach and the fact that he worked his way up from caller to host (really, I enjoy his fan mentality), but it’s almost as if he tries too hard to be “objective” and has absolutely no feel for the audience. I put “objective” in quotes because it’s obvious he has something against Foles – and that’s fine, I actually like it when sports people make their biases known – and is so out-of-touch with listeners, who, yesterday at 5 p.m., were largely happy people in their cars wanting to celebrate a great win. But nope. There’s mush Phil to bring you down. That show is unlistenable.
It was a good day
