I understand that the NFC is wide open this year, but this Eagles team just didn’t look capable of making a deep run. Too many holes that require Michael Vick to be superhuman if they were to win these games. He wasn’t, and they couldn’t get it done. But, let’s look at the game:
What I liked…
-I’m telling you right now there won’t be much in this section.
-Kickoff coverage was pretty nice. That was a pleasant surprise.
-Jason Avant and Jeremy Maclin had good games. The former caught seven balls for 93 yards and a TD. Nice job of pitching in with DeSean banged up.
-Despite a sore MCL, DeSean is still faster than everyone out on the field. It’s a treat to watch him run.
…and not so much…
-Winston Justice has been relatively quiet this year, which is great for an offensive lineman. He was hardly quiet on Sunday. Three costly penalties on two straight plays? C’mon dude. He got benched in favor of a guy that doesn’t belong on an NFL football field.
-The offensive line as a whole still isn’t good enough. Vick is trying to run the offense, but he constantly has to dance around before he can even set himself.
-The names have changed, but it’s still the same story on third and short. This team isn’t built to get third and short. They couldn’t get it if it was Donovan and Buckhalter. They can’t get it when it’s Vick and McCoy. Championship teams can get third and short with a good degree of regularity.
-I praise David Akers almost every week. He’s a stud and the team needs to keep him. You simply are not going to find another placekicker that’s as good and as battle tested as Akers. That said, yes, he was poor. Missing kicks of 41 yards and 34 yards is very un-Akers like. I guarantee you no one feels worse about it than he does. People that want to blame him for losing the game don’t know what they are talking about. It’s easy to look and see you lost by five, and he left six points on the board. But, don’t think for a minute that if he makes one or both, the Packers play the same way.
-Vick didn’t play exceptionally well, but I’m not going to hang this loss on him. He was decent, but not quite good enough. It wasn’t the interception that bugged me so much, but it was that he had Jason Avant standing open at the 11-yard line. There was plenty of time. No need to force things. The bigger problem is why this team needs him to be almost perfect in order to win. He’s covered up a lot of holes.
-I want to hear the game analysis from the fans and media that constantly said “Donovan didn’t get it done” after prior Eagles losses. It’s funny that now it’s Akers fault, and/or Andy Reid (although I will say Reid is a target of constant criticism), and/or Sean McDermott, and/or the defensive players, etc. Shouldn’t you people hold Vick to the same standard that you held Donovan? Vick isn’t a kid and this isn’t his first playoff run. These are the people that said after the Arizona game that Donovan had the ball at the end of the game with a chance to win and he didn’t do it. Vick was just in the same exact position and ended up with the same result.
-I’m now hearing people that think Kolb should be the guy next year. Are you out of your mind?
-Where is the pressure from the front four? And how long does it take to realize that it just ain’t happening with this group, and that something needs to be changed. Blitz maybe? They didn’t sniff Aaron Rodgers. That’s awful.
-And what’s worse is that they just traded up to get a pass-rushing defensive end. He has a torn ACL and we probably won’t know who he truly is until 2012. I hope they don’t think that this issue has been addressed.
-And where is Trent Cole? Stop with the double teamed nonsense. I saw him one-on-one plenty of times. He disappears late in the season far too often for my liking. He’s a nice player, but he’s not dominant.
-I’m not sure what to make of McDermott as a defensive coordinator. I think he needs to make better adjustments, but I’m also well aware of what he’s working with. Not just all the injuries, but a lot of these guys can’t play to begin with.
-I’ve been saying this all year. Ernie Sims just isn’t good at football. He’s got all the physical talent in the world, which makes the fact that he’s awful even more frustrating. He takes bad angles, gets over powered, has no instincts whatsoever, doesn’t make any plays…what else is there?
-12 carries for LeSean McCoy? I know they got down by two touchdowns early, but that doesn’t mean you have to throw every down. I know, it’s a broken record. We all complain about the same stuff every year.
-Now everyone is talking about letting Akers walk. Really? Has anyone looked at the guy who punts the ball? He’s the one that needs to go. The Eagles have two (maybe three if you consider Colt Anderson, who has done a nice job) strong points in special teams. Akers and DeSean Jackson. They can’t afford to have any less. Akers has to stay and they need to take a long, hard look at Rocca.
-Anyone else get the feeling that this is a team ideal for a dome? This is not a cold-weather team, and that might be a bad thing because I hear that it is cold in Philadelphia for much of the NFL season.
I always said it was our D… Dmac was not the prob… it was the D. Vick is not the prob…its the D. Akers WAS a prob but not usually…its the D. Our D sucks. Sucks sucks. Did then…does now. Before TO came it was the lack of weapons and now its the lack of coaching talent and talent overall on D. Pack did whatever they wanted. Vikes did whatever they wanted. Our D made Jake Cutler look like Montana… our D made kenny britt jerry rice. Our D made the skins look good for a game. Our D sucks.
“Anyone else get the feeling that this is a team ideal for a dome”?
Yes and i hate you for saying it. Get a friggin D already. This is NOT philly football. Get the stealers, ravens or even Jets waterboy to coach our D PLEASE. I hate our D.
Vick should get crushed. He pooed the bed and didn’t get it done. Very mediocre the last part of the season.
And I’ve been a Vick supporter…
it was never mcnabb. if were going to be stubborn and pass every down, we should go to a spread.
i really hope marty gets a head coaching gig, because he has held this offense back.
young, fast, talented, explosive offense.
getting better every year, scoring more points than the previous year.
and yet our playcalling is letting us down. need to keep running the football, GB showed us why.
defensively, mcdermotts downfall began after his great gameplan against the colts.
ill give him credit for that game, but ever since we have been horrific overall.
we do have dick jauron as secondary coach, playing the pass is his specialty.
he had the buffalo bills pass defense in the top 10, and they only had young players back there.
he knows how to develop a secondary, very similar to jim. i will say tho, that hge does not blitz much
i think it will be a good fit for us. we have run stuffers at DT and LB, we have natural run defenders.
maybe he can have an impact on improving the coverage skills of our LBs.
i like jauron. i just dont see us going outside of our staff to get a mike singletary or anybody else.
maybe as an assistant, but we tend to promote within.
without a shadow of a doubt, our top 2 free agent targets should be DB asomugha and LB posluzny
there is a good hanful of LBs that will be available via free agency this offseason
ten – stephen tulloch / nyj – david harris / car – thomas davis / tb – barrett ruud / pit – lemarr woodley
min – chad greenway / atl – mike peterson / jac – justin durant / oak – thomas howard
some of them may re-sign or be franchised tag…
those were just some notables, here is a link to the nfl 2011 free agents
http://www.footballsfuture.com/2011/fa/lb.html
Tech, Vick didn’t play well but it’s hard to consistently play well when your o-line isn’t protecting. That goes for him and anyone else. Only schmucks blame 1 guy.
It was always McNabb. His constant three and outs and poor decision making cost us EVERY big game.
Thats what cost us yesterday. Vick’s POOR decision to throw a bomb on first down with 40 seconds left to a rookie wide receiver.
That said, the gameplan was there and the defense was there yesterday. They couldn’t make the tackles when they needed to. We forced like what? 3 fumbles? Our D played well enough to win.
A good game by two even teams. They just made the bigger play at the end.
Time for Dick Jauron to coach the defense.
I also would like a young offensive coordinator, someone who can relate to all of our young guys and bring in a fresh, new, high-powered offense that best suits our speed and explosion.
Riley Cooper said it was amazing to be on the same field as Kevin Kolb. He use to play him in Madden. Oh shit I mean Vick. Greenbay said they were glad Vick played they didnt have to scheme against Kolb. Same thing the Giants said. lol
Micah, to ask “shouldn’t you people hold Vick to the same standard that you held Donovan?” is being disingenuous. Yes there are similarities of the outcomes but there is so much deeper to look into. How about the defenses, or the offensive lines, or the defensive coordinator? Donovan had the benefit of the better all these. Also, how about the fact that we saw Donovan’s for 11 years and deep down knew the result before it happened. Vick has been in the system now for 2 seasons after being out of football for 2 years; he did pretty well this year. I will tell you this, Vick is a true leader, and he makes players better around him. He will make Reid and whoever is the offensive coordinator better because he will demand it, unlike Donovan who was a great “company man.” Let me ask you this, if on that last drive Donovan was the quarterback in this game, would you have expected a win or expected a loss? I know what I would have expected by seeing it so many times. I was shocked that Vick didn’t come through and that’s a major difference. If I was a betting man, I would wager that he comes through next time.
Birdo you still no that Andy Reid system crap. Andy is as much of the problem as anyone. You can blame Vick all you want but Vick didn’t have King Dunlap blocking his blindside. Vick didn’t call the game to run the ball 12 times. Vick didn’t trade for garbage Ernie Sims and Darryl Tapp. You can say what you want. This undersized defense and pass heavy offense will get you close but never close enough period. And when Reid gets fired maybe you’ll hop off his balls and stop thinking that everything Andy does is right. His system is good but not good enough. Period. The year ended the same with McNabb, Garcia and Vick. Sure we all need them to play better at times but this team has glaring issues EVERY YEAR…..THE SAME GLARING ISSUES.
Average_Joseph, but Donovan didn’t have skilled players and the defense didn’t show up in those games either. So when you say he’s had the benefit, that makes a little sense. But he’s had the opposite of what Vick has. Vick has skilled players and an awful line. McNabb had a good line but awful skilled players. Yet with either QB Andy throws the ball like he has the New Englan Patriots offensive line and Green Bay WRs. This isn’t about Donovan. He’s not here anymore. So how about we take a break from dragging his name through the mud and focus on the common factor during the 12 years.
I think we all know who/what the common denominator is for the Eagles to fall short every season
It’s Coach AR and his “System”. It’s based on gadget plays, passing 65% of the time, having a mobile QB who can make plays out of nothing and a small,but quick Defense.. This System has not worked in the NFL versus the good teams and the Good Coaches you will face come playoff time. Coach AR is a good coach but I think he really belongs at the Collegiate level and not the NFL.. Maybe the Stanford or BYU will hire him from the Eagles
Eagles have always been known as hard working, bring your lunch pale to work type of team which fits many of th etough,hard-nosed blue collar people that live and work in the Greater PHiladelphia region, but this team has become soft,very predictable and to be honest, the crowds at the Linc are pretty lame in comparison to the “Vet” days when teams were intimidated to come into PHilly to play the Eagles.. The Physical prescence has gone from this teams since the days of Dawkins,Runyan,Ike Reese and others and has been replaced with too many “look at me’ type of players who get all excited when they make a catch or make a tackle or get a first a down…
We all know that Football is more in the “Entertainment” business than good old fashion,knock,sock them football.. but look at the teams that are the most physical every year in the NFL.. The Steelers,Ravens,Bears,Giants,Patriots,Titans and now the Jets, they seem to come out on top ..
and when you look down the road and you see Franchises like the Falcons,Bucs,Chiefs and the Lions being built the same way.. This dink and dunk, and gadget plays and out-thinking your opponent is on the way out and doesn’t work at the NFL Level.. It’s about match-ups and player vs player… and right now, this Eagle Team is simply not good or physical enough to play with the Big Boys consistently
it does not matter who is Qb if we do not run the ball and stop the run.
“When he (Donovan McNabb, Eagles quarterback) had a chance on the biggest stage – the Super Bowl – he wilted. Great players play their best in the biggest games. He didn’t. He made bad decisions and it cost his team.” Jerry Rice
For one, this team wasn’t “suppose” to do anything this year. The fact that Vick re-emerged and actually made this team with a HORRIBLE o-line and rebuilding defense a contender is credit to Vick. You have to give Andy Reid time to build this team and contend again. He had a five year plan for the Superbowl and it worked. All coaches can do is put players in position to win. If those players choke it away at the end, that CANNOT and I repeat CANNOT fall on Andy’s shoulders. Does Reid make mistakes? Of course! No coach is perfect. But at the end of the day, the coaches job is to put his guys in a position to win. In 2001 against the Rams, they were. Player(s) didn’t step up when it was on the line. Same in 2002. Same in 2003. In 2004, they did what they had to do and stepped up and got to the Superbowl…..but with the game on the line, and with the ball in their hands with THE chance to win the ball game….the player, who shall remain nameless because people like Scorp wish to forget Eagles history…..choked it away.
What this team needs is Nmandi and some help on the right side of the line. A legit center, although McGlynn was honorable towards the end, would also be great! The Packers made one more play than the Eagles yesterday. That’s all it was. Say what you want about the running game and yada yada yada — I saw them run on downs they SHOULD have run on and pass on plays they HAD to pass on. We outgained them. The difference in this game was third down conversions and redzone efficiency — nothing more, nothing less.
All in all It was an exciting season topped off by an exciting playoff loss. Too bad that the coaches didn’t see fit to run against a defense that was “Two Deep” all day. The Packers had no problem adjusting to our to our pass defense by running the ball “down our throats”, and consequently winning the game by keeping our “high powered” offense off the field. Even though the offense was tripping over it’s own feet, and our super stars were injured most of the game, we still almost pulled off a win.
With the proper coaching and a few personnel changes this team has the potential to be great. Hopefully Reid will finally learn how to make adjustments. See you next year!
Thanks Wmonell for the site info for Free-agents…
Here’s Paulman’s Quick look at some Free-agents to pursue (from most expensive to bargain level)
and by position of need.(I’ve tried to stay awy from players over 29 years of age since the Eagles won’t puruse older guys anyways)
CB – Asamogoah – Raiders, J Jospeh – Bengals, A Cromartie – NY Jets, R Marshall – Carolina,
K Arrington – Patriots, W Gay – Steelers,
OLB – C Greenway -Vikings, K Burnett – Chargers, J Anderson – Panthers, S Tulloch – Titans
DE’s – R Edwards -Vikings, C Jenkins – Packers , J Babin -Titans, C Johnson – Panthers
Safety – Dawan Landry – Ravens, E Weddle – Chargers, M Bullitt- Colts , Charlie Peprah – Packers
On Offense
Center/Guard – T Clabo – Falcons, R Kalil – Panthers, H Dahl – Falcons, C Nicks – NO Saints
Off Tackle – J Gaither – Ravens , J Bushrod – NO Saints , C Johnson – Colts
TE – M Lewis – JAguars , B Scaife – Titans, O Daniels – Texans , D Rosario- Panthers
WR – V Jackson – Chargers, M Floyd – Chargers, S Breaston – Arizona, J Jones- Packers
M Sims-Walker – Jaguars
( I chose these WR sinve I think the Eagles need a bigger target down in th Red-Zone..
I still stand by my statement the D-Jax has no business being on the field once inside the Red-Zone for he’s too small of a target and cannot catch the ball in traffic and maybe outside of a end-around play, should be replaced on the field by a bigger target like the above list where these Receivers are
over 6’2″ and 200 lbs )
the bottom line is we need more talent, especially on D…AR the talent evaluator is more to blame than AR the coach…i mean seriously, who was returning kickoffs yesterday? #47?…Kurt Coleman…Cheyney…Fokou…Dimitri friggin Patterson!!! I know injuries happen in the NFL, and some of these guys played admirably this year, but did we really think this D could win a title???
“The bigger problem is why this team needs him to be almost perfect in order to win. He’s covered up a lot of holes. ”
Been saying that the last couple of weeks. The team cant win because they are below average at every position. They need Vick to display some magic before we even have a chance and there shouldnt be that much pressure on one guy. We need some playmakers on both sides of the ball!
And in regards to the Ernie Sims comment, we need players who have a higher football IQ. Patriots very rarely have players with character issues and low football IQ and look how thats turned our for them. Ernie Sims has the body to be a beast of a LB but theres just not much going on upstairs and hes always one step behind the play.
paulman, totally agree. We need a receive like VJax to catch those hard tight balls. But it aint ever going to happen with Maclin and Jackson in the team.
I like Kalil of the Panthers and also Gaither of the Ravens. I hope the Eagles pursue them if they hit FA.
Stop it with the Jackson, Vick and Maclin talk. Out of all the players on the team, like usual, Philly fans criticize the only players on the team.lol ala Iverson. Fans got alot of nerve. Jackson isnt to small for redzone. Maclin isnt to soft. Try running the damn ball in the redzone and maybe the pass game will open up. It all comes down to running the ball.Out of the long list of problems this team has everyone should keep the QB and recievers out of thier mouths. Fix the damn oline and dline.
This team has never had two 1000 yard recievers. We have been looking for recievers for 15 years and finally have a perennial pro bowler and another stud reciever but thats all of the sudden not good enough. Are you serious. We had Pinkston and Thrash. we bitched. We have Jackson and Maclin we bitch. Nothing is good enough.
I have stated all season either Maclin and Jackson are fine, but not together. Who is meant to catch the ball in traffic? Because neither of those two do. You need to have one of them on one side and another big receiver on the other to catch the quick ball in traffic and outjump a corner. Its all well and good having 1000 yard receivers but when they get shut out by press coverage and 2 deep safeties with an o-line not giving Vick enough time to let the receivers deep routes develop then our game falls to bits and we have no gameplan (Vikings, Bears, Giants, Packers come to mind where Djax and Maclin went AWOL). How many of Maclins and Jacksons TD came inside the 10 without broken coverage? How many fades have they caught? How many jump balls have they caught?
Look at all the best receivers in the league. Roddy White, Calvin Johnson, Reggie Wayne, Andre Johnson, Larry Fitzgerald and a couple of years ago Randy Moss. What do they all have in common? SIZE! The ability to let their QB throw it in the air with the pass rush in their face because they know only their man is going to come down with it.
I agree with Mimitaro
Now look at all these young big WR’s across the NFL causing so many match-up problems for defenses Nicks,Edwards,Britt,Rice,Marshall,Jennings,Evans,V Jackson,M WIlliams, etc,etc.
Having a 5-10 165lbs D-Jax on the field at WR in the Red-Zone is just crazy, The DB’s only have to cover 20-25 yards of field, so they don’t have to worry about D-Jax running past them, DB’s get in his face and D-Jax can’t get open and is too small and not able to work or catch the ball in traffic..
and then when the EAgles would throw a Chad Hall down in the Red-Zone too.. Was it any wonder
that the Eagles struggled in the Red-Zone. Jiminy Crickets..
If I was Coach, D-Jax would come off the field every time we reached the Red-Zone and be replaced with a bigger WR (R Cooper) or a 2nd TE every time..