will we ever win?

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.