It was another game and another loss for the Philadelphia Eagles on Monday night, which dropped them to 3-8 on the season. One could just look at the final score and say, "Well, at least it was close." But then I'd have to point out their opponent. It's not like the Eagles lost 30-22 to the 10-1 Houston Texans or the 10-1 Atlanta Falcons. No, they fell by that very score to the 2-8 (now 3-8) Carolina Panthers.
The Eagles did what they've been doing all year - turned the ball over three times, didn't force any turnovers, and developed a case of Alzheimer's when playing defense.
To the offensive coaches' credit, I thought they came in with a solid gameplan on that side of the ball. They found ways to ease the pressure off the beaten up offensive line, open some holes for Bryce Brown and the running game, as well as limit the hits rookie quarterback Nick Foles took. They did all they could to limit pressure on the rookie Foles. In a statistic that is almost unheard of from an Andy Reid coached team, the Eagles ran the ball more than they threw it last night - running the ball 26 times, while only passing it 21 times. Most of the called passing plays were very quick developing, short routes. This made Foles' job relatively easy and while he did get away with a couple of bad throws, he was for the most part efficient - finishing 16 for 21 passing the ball for 119 yards (5.7 per attempt), and a quarterback rating of 89.2. Like I said, the guy wasn't asked to do that much. It's not every day you see a quarterback completing 76.2% of his passes, but only for an average of 5.7 yards per attempt. His average per completion was only 7.4 yards. This number would rank Foles tied for 11th among NFL quarterbacks for yards per attempt, the only difference being that his number is for yards per completion. The 5.7 yards per attempt would rank Foles dead last in the NFL - 35th, a full 0.21 yards being Arizona's Josh Skelton and 0.28 yards being Jacksonville's Blaine Gabbert. Eagles' starting quarterback - Michael Vick - has completed 58.5% of his passes this year, averaging 6.85 yards per attempt. Comparing that to Foles from last night, Vick has completed 17.7% fewer passes than the rookie quarterback from a night ago, yet is still averaging 1.15 more yards per attempt, and 4.4 more yards per completion (11.7 compared to 7.4). The 76.2% completion percentage would rank Foles first in all the league, 6.2% ahead of San Francisco's Alex Smith. That's right - last night, Foles' numbers would rank him 1st in the league in completion percentage and last in the league in yards per attempt. Never in my life did I expect to see those kinds of numbers. While it's very true that Philadelphia's offensive line has struggled immensely at times this year and that overall, I liked the offensive gameplan from a night ago, Andy Reid and company will have to try and open things up a bit more for Foles, assuming they stick with him the rest of the year. At 3-8, the year is all but over for the Eagles. If they're truly serious about seeing what kind of player Foles can be and if the team should look to him or elsewhere for their starting quarterback next year, they'll need to expand the playbook more for the rookie. It'll be near impossible to know much about the rookie's potential if the coaching staff isn't willing to take a few gambles in the passing game and see what the kid has got.
Whether the organization decides to stick by Foles next year or not, the quarterback position is not the team's biggest question mark or area of concern. That would be the offensive line as well as the defense. The O-Line did a decent job last night and the rush defense even played pretty well (Carolina gained 109 yards on 35 attempts - 3.1 per). However, Philly's pass defense was atrocious. Why was all that money spent on Cromartie and Asomugha again?
I already mentioned Nick Foles' numbers and how he only averaged 5.7 yards per pass attempt, while completing over 76% of his passes. Carolina's Cam Newton, meanwhile, completed 18 of 28 pass attempts (64.3%) for 306 yards - 10.9 per attempt. That's right. For the game, Newton completed about 12% fewer passes than did Foles, but for an average of 5.2 more yards per attempt and an astounding 9.6 more yards per completion (17.0 to 7.4). It's not like Newton was having a great year going into Monday night's game. He had thrown more interceptions than touchdowns, didn't have a spectacular completion percentage, his quarterback rating was very average, etc. Yet, against Philly last night, he had a superb quarterback rating of 125.0 - his second highest rating of the season. It was only bettered by his 129.2 rating in the second week of the season against the pitiful New Orleans Saints' secondary. Yeah, if it was the Eagles' goal to make Cam Newton look like Joe Montana, they succeeded admirably.
As far as schedule goes, things just get better and better for the Eagles. They go from being nationally televised on Monday night football in a loss to the then 2-8 Carolina Panthers to being nationally televised next Sunday night, where they'll travel to Dallas to take on the Cowboys.
http://scores.espn.go.com/nfl/boxscore?gameId=321126021
http://espn.go.com/nfl/statistics/player/_/stat/passing/sort/yardsPerPassAttempt
http://espn.go.com/nfl/statistics/player/_/stat/passing/sort/completionPct
The Eagles did what they've been doing all year - turned the ball over three times, didn't force any turnovers, and developed a case of Alzheimer's when playing defense.
To the offensive coaches' credit, I thought they came in with a solid gameplan on that side of the ball. They found ways to ease the pressure off the beaten up offensive line, open some holes for Bryce Brown and the running game, as well as limit the hits rookie quarterback Nick Foles took. They did all they could to limit pressure on the rookie Foles. In a statistic that is almost unheard of from an Andy Reid coached team, the Eagles ran the ball more than they threw it last night - running the ball 26 times, while only passing it 21 times. Most of the called passing plays were very quick developing, short routes. This made Foles' job relatively easy and while he did get away with a couple of bad throws, he was for the most part efficient - finishing 16 for 21 passing the ball for 119 yards (5.7 per attempt), and a quarterback rating of 89.2. Like I said, the guy wasn't asked to do that much. It's not every day you see a quarterback completing 76.2% of his passes, but only for an average of 5.7 yards per attempt. His average per completion was only 7.4 yards. This number would rank Foles tied for 11th among NFL quarterbacks for yards per attempt, the only difference being that his number is for yards per completion. The 5.7 yards per attempt would rank Foles dead last in the NFL - 35th, a full 0.21 yards being Arizona's Josh Skelton and 0.28 yards being Jacksonville's Blaine Gabbert. Eagles' starting quarterback - Michael Vick - has completed 58.5% of his passes this year, averaging 6.85 yards per attempt. Comparing that to Foles from last night, Vick has completed 17.7% fewer passes than the rookie quarterback from a night ago, yet is still averaging 1.15 more yards per attempt, and 4.4 more yards per completion (11.7 compared to 7.4). The 76.2% completion percentage would rank Foles first in all the league, 6.2% ahead of San Francisco's Alex Smith. That's right - last night, Foles' numbers would rank him 1st in the league in completion percentage and last in the league in yards per attempt. Never in my life did I expect to see those kinds of numbers. While it's very true that Philadelphia's offensive line has struggled immensely at times this year and that overall, I liked the offensive gameplan from a night ago, Andy Reid and company will have to try and open things up a bit more for Foles, assuming they stick with him the rest of the year. At 3-8, the year is all but over for the Eagles. If they're truly serious about seeing what kind of player Foles can be and if the team should look to him or elsewhere for their starting quarterback next year, they'll need to expand the playbook more for the rookie. It'll be near impossible to know much about the rookie's potential if the coaching staff isn't willing to take a few gambles in the passing game and see what the kid has got.
Whether the organization decides to stick by Foles next year or not, the quarterback position is not the team's biggest question mark or area of concern. That would be the offensive line as well as the defense. The O-Line did a decent job last night and the rush defense even played pretty well (Carolina gained 109 yards on 35 attempts - 3.1 per). However, Philly's pass defense was atrocious. Why was all that money spent on Cromartie and Asomugha again?
I already mentioned Nick Foles' numbers and how he only averaged 5.7 yards per pass attempt, while completing over 76% of his passes. Carolina's Cam Newton, meanwhile, completed 18 of 28 pass attempts (64.3%) for 306 yards - 10.9 per attempt. That's right. For the game, Newton completed about 12% fewer passes than did Foles, but for an average of 5.2 more yards per attempt and an astounding 9.6 more yards per completion (17.0 to 7.4). It's not like Newton was having a great year going into Monday night's game. He had thrown more interceptions than touchdowns, didn't have a spectacular completion percentage, his quarterback rating was very average, etc. Yet, against Philly last night, he had a superb quarterback rating of 125.0 - his second highest rating of the season. It was only bettered by his 129.2 rating in the second week of the season against the pitiful New Orleans Saints' secondary. Yeah, if it was the Eagles' goal to make Cam Newton look like Joe Montana, they succeeded admirably.
As far as schedule goes, things just get better and better for the Eagles. They go from being nationally televised on Monday night football in a loss to the then 2-8 Carolina Panthers to being nationally televised next Sunday night, where they'll travel to Dallas to take on the Cowboys.
http://scores.espn.go.com/nfl/boxscore?gameId=321126021
http://espn.go.com/nfl/statistics/player/_/stat/passing/sort/yardsPerPassAttempt
http://espn.go.com/nfl/statistics/player/_/stat/passing/sort/completionPct
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