• March 28, 2024

Eagles Offense Takes Advantage Of Its Opportunities In Inconsistent Performance

With a win over the Dolphins on Sunday the Eagles showed us all what possibly could have been this season. The offense did enough to get the job done this afternoon against a Miami team that’s been in over its head the last few weeks.

Let’s face it the Dolphins are not a quality opponent and many of us brought into the hype over the week about how much of a roll they’ve been on coming into the game.  In the NFL you can’t go anyplace without a quality quarterback and the Dolphins are a team going no-where until they find someone that can play the position effectively.

The offense was improved today with the return of Michael Vick and Jeremy Maclin. It almost seemed as if Vick’s presence provided somewhat of a calming effect to the offense which we never saw with Vince Young at the helm. Vick finished the day 15 of 30 for 208 yards with one touchdown and one interception. Not exactly one of his stand out games but he did enough not to lose it for the Birds.

The first quarter was a struggle as Vick had trouble dealing with the rain and the wet surface at Sun Life Stadium but once he calmed down so did the rest of the offense. Vick was able to get DeSean Jackson and Maclin involved early connecting with both on passes over the middle. He hit Jackson on the opening drive and Maclin for a first down on the second drive of the game.

The offensive line struggled throughout the game which Vick had to overcome as time wore on. Vick faced pressure from Miami during the majority of the first quarter as they dominated the line of scrimmage. Vick hit on a key 26-yard pass to LeSean McCoy late in the first by rolling out to his left and throwing right. This pass seemed to get him going in the right direction. The 26-yard gain by McCoy was his longest reception since a 28-yarder he had last season against the Vikings. Vick also was able to get Brent Celek going late in the first quarter with a gain of 11 followed up by an 8 yard pass which he threw in a tight window over the middle.

The return of Maclin seemed to put a spark into the wide receiving core this afternoon. Although he was only targeted 4 times and had only 1 reception for 13 yards he seemed to get the other receivers going today especially DeSean Jackson. Maclin ended up leaving the game after the 1st half and it hasn’t been disclosed yet if it was injury related or precautionary but you could see throughout the game his health had an effect on his performance as he clearly was not at 100%.

During the 2nd quarter Vick went deep to Maclin but over threw him. Maclin didn’t look to be going full speed on that play which could be an indication of the hamstring not being 100%. If that pass would have been completed it would have almost certainly resulted in a touchdown.

Jackson didn’t have a performance for the ages but compared to his play during the previous two games it was a big improvement. He led the team in receiving yards with 59 and hauled in 4 receptions after being targeted 6 times. He also had a 34 yard touchdown catch which came on a vintage deep pass from Mike Vick. It was great to see the two of them hook up on a deep route because it seemed like ages ago when we were seeing that type of play on a regular basis.

DeSean had the Miami safety one-on-one and ran a post-corner route directly to the endzone. You could see when the time came for him to put on the speed and burn the defense it wasn’t an issue at all. DeSean was fired up after the play and his enthusiasm was a sight for sore eyes. He wasn’t moping around and seemed focused and eager to make a difference this afternoon.

Andy Reid did a great job of getting Jackson involved in a variety of ways other than just going deep to him. Vick connected with DeSean on the opening play of the 2nd quarter with a wide-receiver screen which DeSean ran down to the 1 yard line. DeSean’s first catch of the game came over the middle of the field which was also encouraging to see. This is the minimum type of performance we should be getting from DeSean on a weekly basis and if he had afternoons like this all season things could have possibly been different right now in the standings. Hopefully DeSean can improve from this performance and give everyone a vintage dominating performance before the season is over.

The wide receivers were rounded out by Jason Avant hauling in 2 receptions for 35 yards and Riley Cooper with 1 reception for 29 yards. Steve Smith sat this one out which is basically what it seems he’s been doing all season whether he’s dressed to play or not.

McCoy finished the afternoon with a meager 38 yards on 27 carries and 3 receptions for 33 yards. The Dolphins did a great job of bottling up LeSean in the run game but the fact Andy stuck with him and gave him the rock 27 times was a nice improvement. Once the 4th quarter was underway the play calling was still mostly pass plays which was a head scratcher at first but eventually Reid and Marty got the point and began using McCoy to run out the clock.

McCoy punched in 2 touchdowns from inside the redzone. He now has 14 rushing touchdowns on the season and 17 total and has now pulled to within one touchdown of Steve Van Buren’s 1945 single season touchdown franchise record. McCoy also became the first running back to have more than one rushing touchdown in a game against the Dolphins since Fred Jackson in 2009. The afternoon put McCoy in some elite company. Only 6 players in NFL history have had more touchdowns in a season before turning 23 years of age, Emmit Smith, Edggerrin James, Eric Dickerson, Gale Sayers, Mark Clayton, and Jim Brown. Hopefully this is a sign of things to come from LeSean over the next few seasons.

Celek was utilized more in the passing game this afternoon which was good to see. If you look around the league the elite teams frequently use the tight end position in the passing game and when the Eagles are successful they have utilized Celek. Today he had 4 receptions for 39 yards with his longest being an 11-yard gain and he was targeted 5 times. One reason for the dismal season could be traced to the inability of Andy Reid to use Celek. He has the tools to be a top tight-end in the league and showed it during the final years of Donovan Mcnabb’s tenure. It’s important going forward for the Eagles to use him in the pass game for effectiveness on offense.

At the end of the day the Eagles are still a 5-8 football team which doesn’t say much. They still have a very slight shot at making the playoffs but the victory was hollow. At this point the draft pick is more important for this franchise in the long run.

If anything a win like this will only aggravate us fans going forward because at the end of the day we’ll still miss out on the playoffs and now have a lower first round draft pick. The win was just another cruel reminder of what could have been this season if injuries, idiotic play calling, and lack of effort didn’t plague the Eagles throughout 2011.

John Stratis

A lifelong Philadelphia sports fan always looking to share his opinion about the greatest sports town in the world. Follow me on twitter @JohnStratis

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paulman
paulman
December 12, 2011 7:15 am

With both the Eagles and Cardinals winning yesterday coupled with some other teams losing like the Panthers,TB Bucs, Bears,Bills.. The Eagles Draft Selection dropped a few notches down from last week’s spot…
They are probably looking at a 10th-14th Selection versus a 6th-8th Round Selection in the 1st Round and now will probably draft an OL off the Board..
I am hoping the select Safety Mark Barron from Alabama with that 1st Selection who would be an immediate Starter on Defense and could become a real leader on the back end of this Defense