Eagles Hang On to Beat Broncos

The Eagles survived a sloppy 2nd half, and a Broncos comeback to win with a game winning David Akers field goal with 4 seconds left.

The Eagles came out of the game and looked unstoppable in the first half. McNabb barely threw an incompletion, and was picking apart the Broncos, and had almost 250 yards passing and 2 TD's at halftime. Brent Celek had 121 yards receiving and a touchdown at half. The Eagles also got the ball to start the 2nd half, and instead of putting the Broncos away, McNabb threw an interception. Sometimes it seems like McNabb struggles when he has too much time in the pocket, which is what happened on the interception. McNabb tends to play his best when he just makes plays, and reacts to what is happening. He made numerous passes right on the money in the first half with pressure in his face.

After the Broncos settled for a field goal, the Eagles scored another touchdown on a pass from McNabb to Avant, who made a nice catch concentrating on a tipped ball. The Eagles were up by 17 at the point halfway through the 3rd quarter. The Eagles offense really struggled at this point, and the Broncos took advantage of a Macho Harris fumbled kick return, and eventually tied the game at 17. The Eagles defense however buckled down in the 4th quarter, and held the Broncos deep in their own territory late in the game, giving the Eagles the ball back at the Broncos 42 yard line with 1:41 left to play in a 27-27 game. After a McCoy 2 yard run, McNabb found Jeremy Maclin at the 13 yard line for a 27 yard completion. This play was initially ruled incomplete right along the sideline, but after reviewing, was called a completed pass. Akers would kick the field goal after 3 runs, and the Eagles move to 11-4 on the year, and still a shot at the #2 seed, and hopefully wrapping up the NFC East with a Redskins win tonight.

Because McNabb was picking apart the Broncos in the first half, the Eagles rushing attack never really got going. McNabb threw 35 passes, and the Eagles called 23 runs between Westbrook, McCoy, and Weaver. McNabb ran the ball 5 times as well, including a 27 yard scramble on a 3rd and long. Westbrook ran 9 times for 32 yards, McCoy ran 6 times for 27 yards, and Weaver ran 7 times for 20 yards. McNabb threw for 322 yards, 3 TDs, and 1 INT.

For some reason the Eagles seem to be able to do whatever they want in the first half of games, and lead the NFL in almost every statistical scoring category in the first half of games. However, they seem to really hit a wall at halftime. When the other teams' defense adjusts to the Eagles offense after halftime, the Eagles offense doesn't seem to adjust. I'm not sure what it is, but the Eagles need to get better, and close out games in the 2nd half in games that they have large leads.

On defense, the Eagles played fairly well overall. They were put in bad positions a few times in fairness to them on a couple of the Broncos touchdowns. They only allowed 241 yards of total offense for the Broncos, and did a very good job shutting down the Broncos best weapon in Brandon Marshall. They didn't seem to blitz a lot, and even though they got 3 sacks, I would have liked to see them get more pressure on Kyle Orton.

Either way, the Eagles get the victory to move to 11-4, and now can watch the Sunday night, and Monday night games, and root for the Redskins, and Bears. If the Redskins win tonight, the Eagles win the NFC East. If the Cowboys win, the Eagles have to travel to Dallas next weekend needing a win to win the NFC East. The winner of that game would win the division. If the Bears beat the Vikings on Monday night, the Eagles and Vikings would have identical records fighting for the #2 seed in the NFC and getting that first round bye.

Eagles Beat Up on Panthers

The Eagles beat the Panthers in the opener on Sunday to start the season off on a good note. The game however might not have ended on a good note with Donovan McNabb suffering cracked ribs when scoring on a touchdown run.

The game started out with a Panthers touchdown drive that basically took up half the first quarter and ended up with an 11 yard touchdown run from DeAngelo Williams. After that point, the Eagles defense would flat out dominate. After Akers kicked a field goal, on the next Panthers possession, Trent Cole busted up the middle and sacked Delhomme, forcing a fumble. Victor Abiamiri picked it up and fell into the end zone for a touchdown. Delhomme's day would only get worse. DeSean Jackson took a punt 85 yards for a score, and forcing the Panthers to turn the ball over all game allowed the Eagles to take advantage of short fields and come away with a 38-10 win on the road.

On offense, the Eagles were forced to do very little. The offensive box score looks weird for scoring so many points, but nothing really was needed from the offense. McNabb ended the game 10-18 for just 79 yards, 2 TDs, 1 INT, and a rushing TD. I thought McNabb played well for the most part. The interception was the only real bad throw he had, throwing it to the linebacker dropping back in coverage. The Eagles receivers did have a few drops. The Eagles ran the ball well, Westbrook had 13 carries for 64 yards and a receiving touchdown, and LeSean McCoy had 9 carries for 46 yards. The Eagles leading receiver was Brent Celek who had 6 catches for 37 yards and a TD. Going into future games, the offense needs to play better. I need to see more from the receivers in general. Kevin Curtis in my opinion is really just not all that good. He's an average receiver at best, drops too many passes, and can't get open enough from the outside. He belongs in the slot, but isn't used there. When Kolb came in, the offense didn't do too much, and Kolb continues to struggle when he faces game situations.

The story of the game however was the defense. The Eagles defense held the Panthers to just 169 total yards, which included just 86 yards rushing. The Panthers were one of the best rushing teams in the league last season. Sean McDermott really did well in his first game at defense coordinator. To be honest, after watching the Eagles in the preseason, I was a little nervous about the defense coming into this season. Well, in game 1, they were solid. The ended the game with 5 interceptions, 2 from Sheldon Brown, and 1 each from Asante Samuel, Akeem Jordan, and Joselio Hanson. The defense also had 5 sacks, 2 fumble recoveries, and a touchdown. Darren Howard led the Eagles with 2 of the 5 sacks. The Eagles defensive tackles did real well against the run, and the Eagles were in the Panthers backfield all game. If this is the defense that will show up every week, the Eagles will again be one of the best units in the league. I will say that I saw Macho Harris miss a few tackles, which can't happen from your free safety, and Harris needs to get better as the season goes on. It won't be as easy next weekend when the Eagles play the Saints who feature maybe the best offense in the NFL.

As I mentioned earlier, Donovan McNabb suffered cracked ribs in the 4th quarter on a 3 yard touchdown run. Reid said after the game that McNabb would need to be re-evaluated to see if he will play next weekend, but all indications are that he probably will not. This injury to fully heal usually is a 2-4 week injury, but players have come back the next week and played, so we will see how that plays out. Either way, it was a good game, and a good start to the season to get out of the gates, especially for the defense.

No Clue What to Expect From Eagles

The OTA's, mini camps, training camp, and the preseason are finally over and the Eagles are ready to kick off the real season Sunday in Carolina. And after following the Eagles throughout all of the offseason camps and games, I still have no clue what to expect when this team takes the field on Sunday. I have never been this clueless as to how the Eagles will perform on the field this season.

On offense, there was finally some turnover on the offensive line this offseason. With Tra Thomas and John Runyan off the team, at least for now in Runyan's case, the Eagles wasted no time taking care of the offensive line by signing Stacy Andrews, and trading for Jason Peters, both solid offensive tackles. It also appeared like they would be getting all-pro Shawn Andrews back, and so the offensive line looked good. Only problem is Jason Peters was one of the worst players in the preseason, Stacy Andrews couldn't make it more than a few series at a time without coming out of the game, Todd Herremans got injured, and Shawn Andrews seems more interested in making stupid videos on youtube than playing football. Honestly at this point it seems like to me that Shawn Andrews is more interested in stealing money from the Eagles than playing. I understand that back injuries are serious, and can start to flare up at any time and take a while to heal, but Andrews is a guy you just can't take seriously at all. The Eagles will open up with Herremans and Shawn Andrews not playing, and question marks as to how Stacy Andrews and Peters will perform.

At the running back position, the Eagles are solid, but Brian Westbrook has yet to play a preseason game, and as recently as yesterday was not able to practice. Not practicing is most likely a precaution for Westbrook at this point, but Westbrook has still never played all 16 games in a season, and is only getting older and more injury prone as his career goes on. The Eagles obviously need a healthy Westbrook to have success this season.

The questions continue on the defensive side of the football. The Eagles last season were the #1 overall defense in the NFC. I believe that to be a good team, the Eagles have to have a great defense. Not even just a good defense; this defense needs to be in the top 10 in the NFL for the Eagles to be successful. At the end of last season, you had Brian Dawkins at free safety, Stewart Bradley at middle linebacker, and Jim Johnson at defensive coordinator. You can't get much better than that at those 3 areas. Now you have Macho Harris at free safety, Omar Gaither at middle linebacker, and Sean McDermott at defensive coordinator. Harris may turn out to be a beast, but has never played an NFL game, and is replacing one of the best players in Eagles history. That is a downgrade right now. Omar Gaither actually was the Eagles starting middle linebacker, and then was replaced by Bradley because Bradley was better. Gaither moved to the outside, and lost his job there as well. Bradley to Gaither is also a downgrade. Jim Johnson as we know unfortunately passed away this offseason, and I believe that Sean McDermott was the correct replacement, and will become one of the best defensive coordinators in the game, just like Johnson. But right now, this will be McDermott's first game as a defensive coordinator, and until he gets some experience, that is a downgrade at that spot as well. Free safety and middle linebacker are the 2 most important positions on the field for making sure everyone knows their assignments, and they are natural leadership positions.

The Eagles have a lot of skill on their team, just a lot of questions as well. It's not as if I expect bad things out of the guys like Jason Peters, Stacy Andrews, and Macho Harris when they are on the field, I am just saying that we have not seen a lot of these guys play in a meaningful game yet, and do not know how they will perform once the games matter.

It's not enough for the Eagles just to be good. We have been good recently, and that is nothing new for us. 10-6 and a first round playoff loss is not good enough for this team, especially when Joe Banner says before the season that the Eagles have the best roster in the NFL. If he believes this, and the Eagles do not get to the Super Bowl, it sounds like it is on Andy Reid's hands for not being able to get the best roster in the NFL to the Super Bowl.

Donovan McNabb has to be very good for the Eagles to be successful. Westbrook, McCoy, and Weaver have to be very good in the backfield. The Eagles really need DeSean Jackson to continue to progress and become the #1 receiver on this team, and a legit pro-bowl caliber player. On defense, the Eagles will need to continue to get solid play from Trent Cole, Broderick Bunkley, Mike Patterson, Asante Samuel, Sheldon Brown, and Quntin Mikell. The NFC is wide open this year, and the Eagles are capable of getting to the Super Bowl.

As far as Week 1 goes, the Eagles travel to Carolina to play the Panthers. The Panthers were 8-0 at home last year in the regular season until they lost at home in the playoffs. Winston Justice will be making his 2nd career start at right tackle in place of the injured Shawn Andrews. Hopefully his 2nd start works out a little bit better than his first. It won't be easy though as Carolina likes to move Julius Peppers around the line and line him up at both defensive end positions to get the best matchups. The Panthers also feature one of the best offensive lines in football, and the best rushing attacks. The Panthers offensive line features Jordan Gross and Jeff Otah, 2 of the best tackles in the game. They run block well and they pass block well. The Panthers will run the ball with DeAngelo Williams and Jonathan Stewart who looks like he will be playing in this game after not practicing recently. The Panthers like to run, and then set up the play action pass with the run. Just when you bring 8 in the box to stop the run, the Panthers will go play action, and have one of the best receivers in the league in Steve Smith to pick apart the secondary.

This should be one of the better games of the opening weekend slate of games, and when looking at the Eagles schedule, this is an extremely important game to win. When you are looking at an Eagles team that could finish anywhere from 7-9 to 12-4, you have to win this game against another good NFC team, and get off to a solid 1-0 start.

Eagles Name Starting Free Safety

Qunitin Demps less than a week ago that the Eagles need to get it over with and name their starting free safety. Well they did, and it's rookie 5th round draft pick Macho Harris. About a week ago, no one even really knew that Harris was in line for the starting free safety job. Harris was being mixed in at safety, but also was playing cornerback. Harris obviously has some big shoes to fill as this has been the spot held down by Brian Dawkins for the past decade. Guys like Harris, and Omar Gaither will need to step up their game a lot this season to make up for the absences of Dawkins and Stewart Bradley.

Demps also will not be the main kick returner this year, as that job looks like it will belong to Ellis Hobbs. Hobbs was the kick returner last season with the Patriots and was one of the best in the league.

Also, since the Eagles made their final cuts, I still feel like a move needs to be made at wide receiver, as the Eagles kept 7. Reggie Brown seems likely to not be on the team by the start of the season, as he doesn't have much of a role on this team anymore. The Eagles need to activate Vick so he gets to practice with the team, which will also require getting rid of a player. I really want the Eagles to sign Alex Smith, the tight end who was just released by the Patriots. Smith is a good sized tight end, who is above average at both blocking and catching the ball. The latest news on Smith is that the Giants brought him in for a workout. The Eagles only kept 2 tight ends in Brent Celek, and Tony Curtis, so I anticipate something will need to be done there also.