A game in December that means something!
| 12/01 1:00 PM | Opening | BetOnline | 5Dimes | SportsBetting | Bovada |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arizona @ Philadelphia | 48.5 -3.5 | 48.5 -3 | 49 -3 | 48.5 -3 | 49 -3 |
Bonus Question: How will the Cardinals stick it to the Eagles this time?
November 30, 2013
November 18, 2013
RG3 and 7
The Eagles "finally" stopped their home field losing streak (which was made a bigger deal than it should have been), but of course they had to make what was a blowout a nailbiter in the process. After putting up 17 points in the first half and marching down the field to open the second for another TD to make it 24-0, the offense decided to call it a day. The following drives were mostly a parade of 3 and outs.
Meanwhile the defense was shutting down the Ethnic Degradations offense and RG0, holding him to just 4 yards passing in the first half and zero points. But as the offense stalled later in the game they were put on the field more and more and they eventually cracked. First they gave up a long touchdown pass and run to the fullback (of all people) as Chung crushed Trent Cole instead of the receiver. Then they converted the 2 point conversion.
On Washington's next series a few minutes later RG0 underthrew a deep ball into the endzone that his receiver adjusted to and made a great catch. Then they converted the 2 point conversion.
After the Eagles offense failed to put the game away again, Donnie Jones unleashed a 70 yard punt that was downed at the 4. That didn't faze Washington though as they methodically went down the field. I was certain the Eagles would lose after pathetically giving up a 3rd and 25 on the drive and I was going to blame Kelly for the loss as his offense went into the tank. But in the end the previously terrible then suddenly hot RG0 returned to terrible again with an awful decision and throw, floating up a prayer into the endzone that landed in Brandon Boykin's intercepting hands to seal the 24-16 win for the Eagles. After the game Boykin said, "I just saw the ball floating in the air, and I was like, "Is this real life?'" It was a pretty ridiculous pass.
Other notes:
- The defensive line played great with Cox and Logan standing out.
- There was even a Brandon Graham sighting!
- I thought Connor Barwin though was the defensive player of the game with some batted passes, great tackles and the sack and forced fumble of RG0 as they were position to score points.
- The offensive line was ok. They can be better. They also got called a lot for holding and hands to the face penalties.
- What's up with Celek's afterburners?
- Foles was solid again and though made a couple of iffy throws - Avant down the middle and Cooper on a slant - he still didn't get picked.
- Foles had a great run on his touchdown and outrushed RG0, 47 yards to 44.
- McCoy danced too much again and cost the team first downs. Glad he wasn't hurt though with the hamstring thing.
- Brown was useless again.
- Another week, another missed challenge.
- What was Washington doing with their offensive game plan?
- What was Chip Kelly doing with his offensive game plan after going up 24-0?
- This was the first game in a while I got emotionally involved. I guess that's a good thing.
November 14, 2013
November 11, 2013
On the road to Nictory
On the same field that Michael Vick's career reached its pinnacle 10 seasons ago in a playoff win vs. Brett Favre, Nick Foles cemented his hold on the Eagles starting QB job with another solid performance. Foles was shaky and held the ball too long in the first half, but he continued to do what he does best - make good decisions. He also was helped by a great bounce on the DeSean Jackson touchdown. The defense was also shaky at times and got some bounces, but they again stiffened in the red zone and got stronger as the game progressed. Kelly also came through again with nice play calling and half time adjustments, earning the Eagles a 27-13 win.
Other notes:
- Nick Foles is first player in NFL history to have a passer rating of 149 or higher in consecutive games and Foles' passer rating of 149.3 is highest ever by an opposing QB vs. Packers at Lambeau Field [or County Stadium]. Yet the Vick deadenders continue to call the radio shows to disparage Foles and downplay his games.
- Stats courtesy of Reuben Frank's Twitter.
- Another Foles myth was put to bed as McCoy ran for 155 yards vs. the 5th ranked running defense. I guess you can have a running game without Michael Vick after all.
- McCoy had a great game. He was decisive, broke tackles and made would-be-tacklers look ridiculous.
- The offensive line blocked great both for McCoy and Foles.
- Riley Cooper started with a bad drop, but was great the rest of the way with another 2 touchdown grabs, 1 of which was a 9 in difficulty.
- The Eagles set a team-record of eight games with 400-plus yards of offense. Yep, Coach College and his vanilla offense is overmatched.
- A negative in this game was the 0-3 red zone failure. This game could have been a blowout.
- The Eagles held the ball the last 9:32 of the game with a drive that just pounded the ball on every play but one - the nice tight end screen to Casey that he powered for a crucial first down. The last time the Eagles went on a long drive to ice the game was a couple years ago vs. the Giants.
- Unlike the San Diego game where they had to score and Kelly was criticized for rushing down the field, this end-of-game drive was to preserve a 2 TD victory.
- After the first half the Eagles impressively shut down Eddie Lacey.
- Eagles tackling was again really solid.
- DeMeco Ryans was probably the best player on defense. Lots of tackles, one really huge hit, and a nice interception.
- Nice pick by Boykin to save a TD, but Rodgers makes that throw. Good thing Tolzien, 6 days off the practice squad, was making it. I wonder if McCarthy is being called overmatched and a college coach for calling that play.
- Alex Henery sucks. Another miss and more weak kickoffs.
- Packers strategy as the game wore on was thrown the ball up for grabs and hope the refs call interference on the Eagles then cry about it when they don't.
- Pat Shurmur needs to be fired. He was asleep on 2 challengeable calls, especially the 36 yard pass on the sideline by Green Bay where the guy clearly landed out of bounds.
- I liked how the Green Bay fans didn't know the rules on the punt downing.
- I also enjoyed how they actually thought Nelson caught that ball in the endzone. But so did Nelson and McCarthy. IT WASN'T EVEN CLOSE unless Nelson has a 2' wide hand.
- You know who else didn't know the rules and was delusional? These refs. So many bad calls and missed calls it is hard to decide this week's Mama Deetz Wurst reffing of the the game, but it will go to the first of 2 missed blatant facemasks on McCoy.
November 8, 2013
November 3, 2013
Just get blown out, baby
Everything went right for the Eagles offense today on route to a 49-20 destruction of the Oakland Raiders. I only remember one drop (Avant) and just a few penalties, none of which were killers. There were no turnovers, no gutless efforts, and no freelancing. Kelly called a good game and the players executed the plays nearly flawlessly. Foles bounced back from his atrocious effort vs. Dallass to join the "Magnificent Seven," the 7 players in NFL history to throw 7 TDs in one game. Except Foles only needed 3 quarters to do it and along with only Peyton Manning, did it without throwing an interception. Foles had more TDs (7) than incomplete passes (6) and attained a perfect QBR of 158.3. In fact, Nick Foles had the BEST EVER statistical performance in the history of not just the Eagles, but the NFL. I hope you weren't out grocery shopping or something and missed it.
Meanwhile, the defense had another very solid performance despite somehow giving up a total of 560 yards. I continue to see the glimmers of promise they've shown at points in every game this season (but Denver) slowly being realized. I see more attacking and less hesitation. I see more discipline as well as guys are not freelancing or ignoring the scheme and getting caught out of position. And they continue to stiffen in the redzone. Today may have been the best all-around performance of the defensive line. They had good and fairly constant pressure all game and managed to keep forcing Pryor to his left, which is kryptonite to him. A few times they lost containment and he escaped for big runs, but by and large he was bottled up. One thing this defense needs to get better at though is creating turnovers. They had 2 in the second half off of deflected balls, but the game was well in hand by then.
The biggest part of special teams today was covering all the kickoff returns and they did a great job. I don't think one return got past the 30 and several didn't make it to the 20. Jackson was returning punts and his goal seemed to be to run to the sideline as fast as he could get there. His one good return consisted of a few moves and then gaining 5 extra yards as he ran from one side of the field to the other as he raced to get out of bounds. Then of course he grabbed his would be tackler's facemask and yanked on it getting a 15 yard penalty. The tackler was the punter.
Chip Kelly is back to "offensive genius" status. All the "experts" and their mindless, follow the shiny object, herd "analysis" can get back on his bandwagon now. This "overmatched" "college" coach with a "backup" QB dominated the Raiders, who had only given up 10 passing touchdowns all season before today. Note also that Kelly was again wearing the proper head attire - a baseball hat - while the Raiders coaches were wearing the visors. Another key to this victory.
Other notes:
- Let's see if Foles gets as much national tongue bathing as Manning did from earlier this season. Here's all the records he tied or broke.
- Until today, the Raiders had allowed only 1 TD on throws at least 15 yards all season.
- Nick Foles is pretty good against pirate-themed teams said Twitter.
- Eagles ran that Foles lateral option play once in preseason.
- Bryce Brown showed up today for a little while.
- The running back Jennings showed up for the Raiders.
- Warren Sapp predicted the Eagles would be shut out today.
- Tim Ryan's head is bigger than Joe Buck's.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)