Young’s Picks Doom Eagles As The Offense Struggles Against Seahawks

The Eagles no heart, gutless offense reared its ugly head in the great northwest last night. Going into the game I thought they’d come out with some fire and determination after the embarrassment we all witnessed against the Patriots last week. Instead what we saw was a group of guys who wanted no part of the 4-7 Seahawks.

Vince Young made some of the same decisions a high school quarterback would make and his 4 turnovers were the difference in this game on the offensive side of the ball.

The first offensive play of the game resulted in one of these horrific interceptions which led to a Seattle touchdown right out of the gate. The pass was inexcusable especially when other options were available. Riley Cooper was open down field and you always have the option of throwing the ball away but for some reason Young chose to throw it directly to Kam Chancellor.

You knew what kind of a night it was going to be after that play. Young finished 17 of 29 for 208 yards and a touchdown. His pass attempts were reduced from the 48 he had to throw against the Patriots but the 4 interceptions were killers. The key interception was a back breaker in the 4th quarter that pretty much ended it right there. This interception along with the one on the opening drive clearly was a result of horrible decision making on the part of Young.

“That was just a bonehead play on my part,” Young said. “I should have known there was a man there. I just lost a linebacker when I released it.  He just popped into the picture.  That’s all on the quarterback’s fault. I saw the coverage, I saw the man, I just lost a linebacker on that route.”

The shame of it is Young seemed to be one of the few players out there who genuinely cared about winning this game. He was out there making the best possible throws but at the end of the day lets face it Young is not a good quarterback and he’s proved it this season.

“We’re pros, things happen,” Young said. “I’m not pointing fingers at anybody.  We’re a team first, so we have to get it back together and be ready for the next game.”

The lone bright spot of the Eagles offense was LeSean McCoy who had 133 yards of net offense and 2 touchdowns total. He carried the ball 17 times for 84 yards and one rushing touchdown. When you look back on this season the only positive thing you can really say about it is that McCoy put his stamp on the NFL. He has proven time and time again throughout the season that no matter what the situation he comes out ready to play each and every week.

McCoy had some nice runs in this game including an amazing 20-yarder in the first quarter and also asserted himself in the passing game. The screen pass worked to perfection tonight on a number of occasions and as a result McCoy had 4 receptions for 49 yards. The receiving touchdown came on the classic shovel pass that has worked so well throughout the Andy Reid era.

McCoy was targeted five times in the passing game and came up with four receptions. The lone pass he didn’t make that was intended for him was the dreadful screen pass that went directly to linebacker David Hawthhorne who returned it 77 yards for a touchdown.

The wide receiving core looked awful in this one.  Cooper who looked like he genuinely was disgusted with his performance came up with some key drops. The second interception thrown by Young was due to the fact that Cooper couldn’t hold on to the ball in what would have been a nice gain of yardage. Cooper was the leading receiver on the evening with 94 yards on 5 catches. He was targeted ten times though and his reception number should have been more than the end result.

DeSean Jackson showed all of us how much he really cares about playing football right now. He’s clearly checked out for the season and is only concerned with staying healthy for his next contract whether it’s with the Eagles or another team. He was targeted five times tonight and finished with four receptions for 34 yards with his longest reception being a 20-yard gain.

With Jackson being the deep threat that he is it doesn’t say much for his play when McCoy is getting more receiving yards than him. One particular play in the second quarter summed it all up for the type of effort we were going to get from Jackson last night. He was one-on-one downfield and Young was looking his way. The only problem was Jackson was looking back for the ball so Young was forced to look elsewhere and he overthrew a wide open Brent Celek.

Jackson clearly didn’t want any part of the action last night because if he did he would have been begging for the ball in this situation. Jackson had the entire inside of the field to work with and if he just looked back this play could have been a difference maker. Throughout the game, the NFL network did a great job of showing shots of Jackson on the sidelines looking quite disinterested and unwilling to speak with Young about his play.

That’s two consecutive weeks in which Jackson has shown the entire country what a slouch he can be on the field.  I still believe this team is better with Jackson on the field under better circumstances and the front office is to blame for not paying him earlier in the season but no matter what the situation you can’t quit on your team.

Celek was targeted 4 times tonight and came up with 3 receptions for 21 yards while Jason Avant rounded out the receivers with 1 catch for 10 yards. Celek could have been involved more and Young did miss him on the key pass but with the amount of pressure Seattle was bringing Celek had to stay in for blocking purposes tonight. Bottom line is the receivers were egregious all night and combined with the poor play from Young it was an all around recipe for disaster on offense.

Once again Reid admitted he needed to do a better job after the game. When you’ve lost eight times in a season where you were predicted by many to be a force in the NFC, I don’t think any words can really help the situation. This team had Superbowl aspirations and many like myself brought into the hype. It’s pretty clear that in order to win in the NFL it starts and ends with the draft.

Teams need to grow together in this league and what we are witnessing is a group of players that play for the name on the back of the jersey and not for the one on the front.  Reid and the Eagles front office drafted horribly in the past few seasons and as a result tried to piece together a makeshift Superbowl caliber team and the plan completely backfired. At this point the Eagles are playing for as good of a draft pick as they can possibly receive in the first round.

I’m unsure if Reid will be around to make that pick. As much as a change is needed I’m unsure if the front office will hold this one bad season against Reid although they should. A 4-12 finish is possible and next up is a game in South Florida against the Dolphins. For those of us that will continue to watch the train wreck the only thing left to evaluate is who has the guts to come out and play hard the rest of the way. It should be pretty easy to find out who wants to be part of this team next season because every skill position should be up for grabs right now outside of McCoy’s running back position.