Quick Post-Game Thoughts

Photo credit: Eric Hartline-USA TODAY Sports

Let’s just go through the whole roster here, because the Eagles are 4-1, they have a real shot to go into their bye week at an absurd 5-1, and I’m spent from an hour-long ride home in which I made Mrs. CB hate-listen to Phil From Mt. Airy with me. “Man, he’s really negative, does he know they won?” she asked.

The first three quarters

The Eagles are actually a balanced team. People throw away kick returns, fumble recoveries and blocked punts as flukes, and while they may be random events, they don’t happen by accident. The Eagles’ special teams and defensive line has been fantastic this year, especially the special teams. It’s easy to look at their first five games and question whether the Eagles can consistently put up points, but that would be doing a disservice to the five touchdowns that have come from defense and special teams, not to mention the outstanding job the special teams has done with field position. Those are real considerations, and if I hear one more person lament that the Eagles aren’t playing well and fail to mention the game-changing special teams efforts, I’m going to flip out. Yes, the offense – which is still missing outstanding interior linemen – has been hit or miss, but there are other areas – defensive line and special teams – where the Eagles are vastly improved over just a year ago. And that’s why the Eagles had a 20-point lead heading into…

The fourth quarter

F the fourth quarter. The game quickly took on the feel of a late-era Andy Reid game– the Eagles scuffled to score for three quarters but still held a lead and then completely collapsed in the fourth and left you with a cornerback you wanted to strangle. I think the problem was two-fold: 1) They again lost the time of possession game and there’s no doubt the defensive line was gassed, which meant more time for 2) the cornerbacks to get exposed as the useless grab-bag of second-handers that they are (more on them individually in a moment). But comebacks happen in sports. Teams go up big and take their foot off the gas. It’s human nature. I’d consider the first three quarters more indicative of the defense’s ability than the last one.

Nick Foles

You can no longer argue that he’s been great. He hasn’t. But he has been good enough. What’s concerning, however, is that even when given reasonable time in the pocket, he makes bad decisions (or just bad throws) and has developed a habit of throwing off his back foot. For a guy who was so fundamentally sound last year, Foles does some head-scratching things out there that make you wonder what his thought process is. And he is no longer taking care of the ball.  Of course, if I had…

David Molk

… playing in front of me, I’d want the other team to have the ball, too. That guy stinks.

LeSean McCoy

I still blame the line for his struggles. Watch a replay on any play where he gets less than two yards (or just any Eagles offensive play in general), and you’ll see the interior line collapses quicker than a Jenga tower when a slimy hipster bumps your table at Frankford Hall. There is only so much bouncing Shady can do. That said, while the effort was noble, he got soooooo sloppy with the ball before his fumble today. He was dangling that thing out there like a dog showing off a mutilated bird. Look! Look! I got it! I got it! Awwww and now I’m sad because that big man just took it away from me and won’t give it back.

Brain damaged bald eagle

Hey speaking of injured birds, I saw the brain damaged bald eagle the Eagles are using for pre-game flyovers and general mascot-ism, Noah, on the sideline. At one point in the second quarter he completely flipped out on his handler like Laura Linney’s brother in Love Actually. One second Noah loved his caretaker, and the next he was flapping at his face like he posed some grave threat. All the caretaker could do was calmly assume the position and take it.

Noah had to be restrained and taken into the tunnel. Poor guy. He’s just confused.

Jeremy Maclin

I enjoyed the Return of the Mack montage the Eagles played today. He looks great.

Riley Cooper 

Great catch in the end zone, but he’s still texting DeSean late at night. I miss you, bro. Things were… different when you were here. Now they’re paying attention to me all the time and I can’t handle it. I may not be fast, but I’ll hop your fence anytime. Not to fight… to love. XOXO Riley.

Jordan Matthews

Dear DeSean, thanks for being a punkass and making way for me. I’m going to steal your boyfriend… ‘s job.

Darren Sproles

He’s 2009 Raul Ibanez. Veteran offensive talent who’s well-respected but displaying a previously unseen ability to completely dominate and EXSPROLDE. Like Ibanez, who came out of seemingly nowhere with the power, Sproles is running in a way that no one expected. Ibanez was supposed to complement a potent offense, but he wound up carrying it for the first third of the season. Sproles is doing exactly the same thing. Less important: they both have kind of weird shapes and big asses. I look at these things. UPDATE: Commenter The Baron pointed out that I compared Sproles to Tomas Perez a few weeks ago and, well, can’t have it both ways. Touché. But I was pretty clear that Sproles was way better than Perez, and that I compared them simply to warn against over-relying on Sproles. I still stick by that. Remember, late-2009 and all-of-2010 Ibanez was not the same Ibanez.

Cary Williams

Completely agree. Between that missed tackle along the sideline, that touchdown in the fourth quarter, and just his general existence, Cary looks, well, tired out there. That, or he completely stinks. I think it might be the latter. He’s just useless for a supposed number one corner. But then again, there’s probably a reason Baltimore wasn’t that upset with losing their slot corner.

Bradley Fletcher

I don’t know how else to say it: When you notice Bradley Fletcher, something bad just happened.

Fletcher Cox

He’s looked great this year. To me, anyway. Tons of pressure. Just a force out there.

Cedric Thornton

Rumblin’, bumblin’, stumblin’.

A touchdown. Almost two. Great game. He’s also my favorite Eagles lineman to use in Madden.

Connor Barwin

He may be the best all-around player on defense. Unlike Bradley, when you notice Barwin (like when he’s making one of his two sacks today or knocking down a pass), something good usually happened. He’s also our sponsorship partner with NRG Energy, so I’m contractually obligated to say nice things about him (but for real, he’s awesome).

Stupid

This is just stupid. Stupid good. From Yahoo!:

There are eight situations in which a team can score a touchdown in the NFL. Can you name ’em all?

While you’re thinking, the important part of the story here is that after five games, the Philadelphia Eagles have now scored a touchdown in seven different ways, per RedZone’s Scott Hanson and FTW. No team in the NFL has ever scored a touchdown all eight ways, but the Eagles now have the rest of the year to do so.

This isn’t by accident. Consider it before you bloviate about how bad the Eagles have looked so far this season, Phil From Mt. Airy.