Really bad
The Eagles topped last weeks offensive disaster by putting up ZERO offensive points this week in losing 15-7 to the basement dwelling NY Giants. Vick was awful from the start and should never have started. He went 6 of 9 for 31 yards and 1 interception in his almost 2 quarters of play and never crossed the 50 despite starting his first series at the 41. Matt Barkley finished the game and was better, but not really that good. His first series showed promise as he lead the team all the way down to a first and goal at the 2, but then coughed up a stupid fumble instead of throwing it away after the Giants sniffed out the naked bootleg called. Barkley went a perfect 4 turnovers in his first 4 NFL possessions. He is a machine.
For the rest of the game Barkley would make a couple good throws here and there but not enough to sustain a drive more than 2 first downs or so. In general he looked more competent this week than last and had much more zip on the ball, but he thinks he has 2 minutes to stand in the pocket and look around. The running game was terrible again as the holes just aren't as big for McCoy as they used to be and he also looks slower and indecisive. It didn't help that neither Vick or Barkley ever kept the ball on the read option plays. Bryce Brown is next to worthless.
The defense was once again impressive. Sure the Giants only punted once in the first half, but the defense ultimately held the Giants to only field goals and they got stronger as the game wore on like in past weeks. They played well enough to win the game, but they desperately needed to create a turnover to help out the pathetic offense.
Special teams were ok, and they did score the only points of the day thanks to a terrible snap on a Giants punt. The onside kick effort that followed was really poor though.
Kelly was bad this game. His first mistake was starting Vick who clearly couldn't play and sucked more than usual. So Barkley then had to come into another bad situation and without practicing with the first team offense. His other mistakes were questionable choices to go for it and not go for it during the course of game. I won't really get on him about the play call on the 2. If every know-it-all sportswriter and talkshow host on twitter was calling for a handoff to McCoy there don't you think the Giants would have been ready for that too? Granted that call probably wouldn't have resulted in a fumble, but the turnover is on Barkley not throwing it away like he's supposed to, not Kelly. On the onside kick, I would have kicked it deep, but he is right that 1 first down by the Giants and the game would be over anyway because the Eagles only had 1 timeout left. In the end the Giants did get a first and still the Eagles did get the ball back with only 27 seconds left. If they had kicked it deep though, the way the Giants punter was kicking the ball the Eagles might have been starting at their 36 instead of the 16.
Other notes:
- After watching this terrible game I had no desire to watch any more football for the rest of the day and even wished the Flyers were playing tonight so I could watch that.
- The new worst ad during NFL games is now the Julio Jones dancing one since the Ken Jeong one seems to have dropped out of the rotation.
- Brady's first half was worse than Vick's: 6/8, 25 yards and 1 interception.
- DeSean Jackson is a coward. I didn't listen, but did he say, "For who, for what?" after the game?
- Jackson isn't the only one guilty of not putting their head down and trying to power for the first down though. Lots of players on this team don't have a clue what the goal is it seems.
- Casey made a catch today! And he powered for a first down on it.
- On fourth and long you throw the ball long and hope either your guy catches it or a moron on the other team does. What you don't do is dump it off for a 3 yard gain.
- The previous play where they flagged Avant for offensive pass interference nullifying a first down was this week's Mama Deetz "Wurst" officiating of the game.
You want to identify an idiot? Anyone that says, "Chip Kelly is overmatched." Or some version of "that's a college move." every time Kelly makes a mistake. The people that say it like it because they think it makes them sound superior to and more knowledgeable about football than 1 of the 32 people in the world that's good enough to become a head coach in the NFL. Instead they sound like idiot sheep as they bleat out what every other idiot is saying.
Every coach in the league makes bad decisions. Andy Reid made hundreds. Tom Coughlin has made hundreds. Even Bill "football genius" Belichick has made hundreds. But when they make them they are just ripped for making a bad decision. There isn't this superior attitude and condescension toward them like they were from wrong side of the tracks and how dare they think they can come in here and show us what's what. Dontcha know we're the self-anointed "most knowledgeable fans in sports!"
The same attitude is present nationally in aging mediocrities like Phil Simms and Merrill Hoge who can't stand that someone might try something different and succeed, so they just nitpick the things that support their view and ignore everything else that might contradict it, like stats. And at the beginning of the season hacks like them were saying that the offense can't keep up this pace because this is the NFL and the players will wear out blah blah blah. Now they are complaining that the Eagles aren't playing fast like they were "promised." Chip Kelly did what they said he should do and now they hold it against him.
They also are making the complaint of "they said this offense was going to change the game. And it isn't!" In reality "they" is no one or maybe a couple of Chip Kelly boosters in the media, but they insinuate that somehow Chip Kelly made that claim and now this uppity college coach is getting his comeuppance. What small, bitter losers these guys are.
And mind you, these grand pronouncements are being made after a handful of games with a bad team and a QB situation that is now a disaster. Whatever happened to "I'm just going to watch and not expect much because I understand the situation going in." I picked 8-8 and so far that doesn't look like it's going to happen. So what. This season is about making the transition from the dreck and culture of losing left behind by Andy Reid to hopefully a better future. Kelly has made his share of mistakes, bad play calls and decisions and could turn out to be a total bust. But I will give him more than 7-8 games to show me what he's got.
