The Philadelphia Eagles continued their lovely string of defeats, falling 31-6 to in-division rival Washington today - their sixth consecutive loss, dropping them to 3-7 on the season.
Today marked the first game started by Eagles' rookie quarterback Nick Foles. It's just about impossible to fairly grade an NFL quarterback based on one start, so I won't be too critical of the guy. However, Foles did anything but dazzle with his play, completing just 21 of 46 pass attempts (45.7%) for 204 yards (4.4 per attempt), and 2 interceptions for a quarterback rating of 40.5. He also ran the ball once for no gain and was sacked four times for a loss of 27 yards. He completed passes to six different receivers. However, he only completed seven of his passes to actual wide receivers and only two of those went to either DeSean Jackson or Jeremy Maclin. Being down for most of the game, Philly had to ditch the running game fairly early. It had been fairly ineffective up to that point anyway. LeSean McCoy, before coming out of the game with a concussion, had only carried the ball 15 times for 45 yards (3.0 per/). I think it's pretty safe to say that this was by far and away the poorest outing by the Eagles' offense this season
Unfortunately for Philly fans, their defense was just as ineffective as their offense. Washington rushed for 169 yards and averaged an even 5.0 yards per carry. Rookie quarterback Robert Griffin III had a perfect afternoon quarterback rating wise. He completed 14 of 15 passes for 200 yards and 4 touchdowns, resulting in a perfect rating of 158.3.
Where Philly goes from here is anyone's guess. The defense appears to have almost given up as a unit. They're progressively getting worse on the season and with a new defensive coordinator calling the shots, chances are it's going to be a rough final month and a half ahead for the Eagles defense. Nick Foles was anything but impressive this afternoon, yet unless head coach Andy Reid seriously thinks the team can go a perfect 6-0 the rest of the way through and potentially make the playoffs, it may make more sense to get the rookie some reps by starting him the rest of the way than placing Vick back in at quarterback. If Reid wants to play his best guys until they reach 8 or 9 losses and Vick is healthy, then it'd make more sense to start him over the rookie, Foles. If Vick and tailback LeSean McCoy miss significant time due to their concussions, the Eagles' offense is going to look worse than some from an elementary school flag football league. As I've consistently been saying throughout this season and which has only started being mentioned amongst ESPN analysts over the past couple weeks, while quarterback Michael Vick was a nice scapegoat, he wasn't the main problem with the Eagles lack of success. The main reason for their struggles has been the ineffectiveness of their line play, both offensively and defensively. As we saw with Nick Foles behind center today, it doesn't matter who's playing quarterback if the offensive line doesn't give him time to throw the ball.
http://espn.go.com/nfl/boxscore?gameId=321118028
Today marked the first game started by Eagles' rookie quarterback Nick Foles. It's just about impossible to fairly grade an NFL quarterback based on one start, so I won't be too critical of the guy. However, Foles did anything but dazzle with his play, completing just 21 of 46 pass attempts (45.7%) for 204 yards (4.4 per attempt), and 2 interceptions for a quarterback rating of 40.5. He also ran the ball once for no gain and was sacked four times for a loss of 27 yards. He completed passes to six different receivers. However, he only completed seven of his passes to actual wide receivers and only two of those went to either DeSean Jackson or Jeremy Maclin. Being down for most of the game, Philly had to ditch the running game fairly early. It had been fairly ineffective up to that point anyway. LeSean McCoy, before coming out of the game with a concussion, had only carried the ball 15 times for 45 yards (3.0 per/). I think it's pretty safe to say that this was by far and away the poorest outing by the Eagles' offense this season
Unfortunately for Philly fans, their defense was just as ineffective as their offense. Washington rushed for 169 yards and averaged an even 5.0 yards per carry. Rookie quarterback Robert Griffin III had a perfect afternoon quarterback rating wise. He completed 14 of 15 passes for 200 yards and 4 touchdowns, resulting in a perfect rating of 158.3.
Where Philly goes from here is anyone's guess. The defense appears to have almost given up as a unit. They're progressively getting worse on the season and with a new defensive coordinator calling the shots, chances are it's going to be a rough final month and a half ahead for the Eagles defense. Nick Foles was anything but impressive this afternoon, yet unless head coach Andy Reid seriously thinks the team can go a perfect 6-0 the rest of the way through and potentially make the playoffs, it may make more sense to get the rookie some reps by starting him the rest of the way than placing Vick back in at quarterback. If Reid wants to play his best guys until they reach 8 or 9 losses and Vick is healthy, then it'd make more sense to start him over the rookie, Foles. If Vick and tailback LeSean McCoy miss significant time due to their concussions, the Eagles' offense is going to look worse than some from an elementary school flag football league. As I've consistently been saying throughout this season and which has only started being mentioned amongst ESPN analysts over the past couple weeks, while quarterback Michael Vick was a nice scapegoat, he wasn't the main problem with the Eagles lack of success. The main reason for their struggles has been the ineffectiveness of their line play, both offensively and defensively. As we saw with Nick Foles behind center today, it doesn't matter who's playing quarterback if the offensive line doesn't give him time to throw the ball.
http://espn.go.com/nfl/boxscore?gameId=321118028
It's time for Lori to tell Reid he has to step down as coach at the end of the season. At the end because no decent coach would sign on mid season. Vick must go! He's only proved his day in the sun has been over. Vick got his big payout so see ya later dog hater. I don't like any of the pro coaches available, the game has changed to much to bring back old blood. College coaches aren't progressive enough for todays game. I would like to see them bring in someone new and give them time to build a new team. Let Foles play the rest of the season so we can get a good assessment of him.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure what the answer is at quarterback. For as horrendous as the offensive line has been this season, I don't think Dan Marino could have lasted behind center for an extended period of time before either being hurt or voluntarily going to a loony bin, saying his reason was because the big uglies were on the brink of driving him to the point of insanity. It probably makes the most potential long-term sense to start Foles the rest of the year. My gut tells me he's probably not the long-term solution, however it may be difficult to ultimately justify that one way or another, given how inept the line has been. It's not just in pass protection where this has been showcased either. LeSean McCoy, arguably one of the top five tailbacks in the league, has now carried the ball 177 times this season for 750 yards - 4.2 per carry. That's almost a full yard less than he's averaged per carry over the past couple seasons (480 carries for 2,389 yards - 5.0 per). It's not like the guy has suddenly lost a step. He's 24 years old. It's felt on many occasions as if directly following the hand off from either Vick or Foles, McCoy has had to dodge two defenders 2-3 yards behind the line of scrimmage, and has to work overtime just to get back to the original line of scrimmage. Whoever the quarterback is, the line needs to drastically improve.
ReplyDeleteI don't think there can be much debate surrounding there needing to be coaching changes. Andy Reid has had a good run in Philly, but I think most would agree that his time is up there. The team needs a serious facelift. The front seven has exerted less pressure on opposing quarterbacks through ten games than opposing front sevens have exerted on Vick/Foles in a single week. The secondary has appeared to not be worth all the money that was spent on them a season ago. Of course, they're not getting much help from the front seven giving opposing quarterbacks time to read "War & Peace" while waiting for receivers to get open. There have been too many penalties, turnovers - just an overall lack of discipline on both sides of the ball.
If play-calling were up for Razzies, it'd likely take the prize for worst picture. Given the lack of good pass protection for both Vick and now Foles, in conjunction with having a Pro-Bowl caliber running back in LeSean McCoy, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense to throw the ball twice the rate of running it. There's been a lack of balance, a lack of unpredictability, and it's often times appeared as if opposing defenses know the Eagles' offensive playbook better than they do. I've seen this same situation in Dallas. Like Vick, Tony Romo is a rather divisive quarterback. Like Vick, many believe he's talented, fun to watch, but isn't consistent with his decision-making and forces balls more than he should, which leaves him sometimes prone to turning the ball over. At the same time, like Vick this year, Romo has gotten pounded behind a rather weak offensive line in Dallas, and like Vick, he's been called on to drop back in the pocket far more than he probably should. As ESPN's Tom Jackson reported this evening, Romo was called on to drop back 59 times in today's game against Cleveland, while there were only 19 called run plays. The guy was sacked 7 times, hit many others, and even though the Cowboys won the game in overtime, after the game Romo sounded as if he was coming off a very disappointing defeat - likely because of how battered and bruised he was. Both teams neglect the running game more times than not and at the end of the day, it's only hurt them - their quarterbacks in particular.
I agree Foles is probably not the answer, but in order to get a fair assessment of him he needs more playing time. Either way we'll see an improvement when they fix the offensive line. As for the defense, I think I'm spoiled. 10 years of great defense has me expecting great defense. And someone needs to teach the special teams the difference between a hit and a tackle. On the other hand, GO EAGLES!
ReplyDeleteYeah, I didn't even touch on the special teams. The kicking game has been pretty solid, but the coverage team has been atrocious and that's probably being kind. I think it was the game against the New York Giants when their returner (David Wilson, I want to say) seemed to go untouched on kickoffs until he reached the 30-yard line. Two or three Eagles' players then thought they were playing flag football for a moment and seemed shocked when Wilson didn't go down. When all was said and done, New York started their possession(s) around midfield. For as bad as the defense has been these past four games, lousy special teams coverage has often times made their jobs that much more difficult.
ReplyDelete::looks it up::
Yup, one David Wilson returned six kicks for 217 yards (36.2 average) in that game. Ouch!