Eagles Lose Fourth Straight Against Giants
This is getting pretty old talking about how bad the Eagles play every week. The Eagles lost 27-17 to the New York Giants in a game where they never seemed to have a legitimate chance to win.
Andy Reid named
Mike McMahon the starting QB, a decision everyone was expecting. McMahon got off to a horrible start offering no passing threat to the Giant defense. This allowed the Giants to crowd the box and hold
Lamar Gordon and
Brian Westbrook to minimal gains. I can't blame the awful offensive start on McMahon at all because he hasn't seen significant playing time since he was in Detroit. Also the Eagles have been perfecting the art of coming out flat over the past few weeks while McMahon was watching on the sidelines. Meanwhile, on the other side of the ball
Eli Manning and the Giant's offense was not off to a great start either, so it was an uneventful game of field position for the first quarter.
Things started to pickup later in the game. There was a controversial pass interference play called against Eagles safety
Michael Lewis which put the Giants in great position to score. The Giants kicked a field goal and made the first score of the game. The next score came as a result of a blocked Eagles punt far back in their zone. The Giants recovered the ball on the Eagles 1-yard line and it took them all four downs to get it into the end zone. There was an interesting play on the second down of the series. Giants RB
Brandon Jacobs appeared to fumble the ball before entering the pile.
Mark Simoneau ended up with the ball as the pile cleared but the referees did not see any of this so there was no call. This ended the scoring for the first half with the score 10-0 in the Giants favor.
The second half proved to be a much more exciting half with more scoring a better execution. Mike McMahon clearly started to feel more comfortable as time went on. He started hitting
Reggie Brown in a few impressive completions. Both teams played pretty well but not as well as they should've in the second half. They basically played even in the third and fourth quarters with both offenses posting 17 points. The Eagles certainly did not play well enough to overcome the extra tens points they spotted the Giants in the first half.
So the Eagles lose another and it very much looks like they will not make the playoffs. Also in a side note CB
Lito Sheppard broke his ankle and will be out indefinitely.
The Battle of the Backup QBs: Detmer vs. McMahon
It is not official but it clearly seems that Donovan McNabb will not be playing this sunday against the Giants. This sparks discussion over who will take his place. Technically
Koy Detmer is the second string and
Mike McMahon is the third, but there are many people that think those titles should be reversed. Let's take a close look:
KOY DETMER
PROs
- Very Intelligent QB
- Knows the offense inside and out
- Has been with the Eagles since 1997
CONs
- Average arm strength
- Below average mobility
- Undersized
BOTTOM LINE: Koy is a very good backup QB but he may not possess enough skill to command an offense for several consecutive weeks considering that McNabb may be out for a while.
MIKE MCMAHON
PROs
- Very good mobility
- Strong Arm
- Has previous experience as starting QB in Detroit
CONs
- Still learning the offense
- Underwent exploratory arthroscopic
BOTTOM LINE: McMahon is a young QB with still a lot of potential to continue to improve. He did get ousted from the Lions but that team had an endless number of problems. It would be interesting to see McMahon play for a good team.
Eagles Give One Away to the Cowboys
It's still too early to talk about this game but I feel it is my responsibility to discuss what happened last night. My language may be a little strong because I'm still very angry over last night's game.
Last night was the first game that the Eagles did not have to worry about Terrell Owens at all. He did not play last week but talk of what would happen next to him still dominated the headlines. It seems that for now TO is suspended and will not play for the Eagles again. His case is being looked into by an arbitrator. Anyway, the game started off very well last night with the Eagles offense showing balance we haven't seen all year. By the end of the game, the Eagles ran the ball 36 times while passing only three more times. This balance helped the Eagles control the game for 56 minutes in which they led 20-7.
Although in the last four minutes a lot happened. The Eagle's defense, which had completely controlled the line of scrimmage all game gave up a 26-yard run to barber followed by a touchdown pass to Terry Glenn to make it 20-14. Even with the momentary lapse on the part of the Eagles they were still in the driver's seat with the ball and a six point lead. Apparently they weren't. The Eagles needed to get a first down to continue their drive but a bad pass by McNabb and a good read by Roy Williams changed everything. Williams returned the interception for a touchdown to give the Cowboys the lead. Conveniently, McNabb also got injured right after he threw the interception so McMahon came in to give the Eagles one last shot at a field goal. He did a pretty good job with a nice pass to Reggie Brown which should have been caught. It would have given David Akers a chance at a chip shot. Instead, Aker's was left with about a 60 yarder which he came up at least 15 yards short. Game Over. There were a lot of angry fans leaving the Linc and a few players that insinuated that maybe McNabb should think about getting surgery on his sports hernia.
Andy Reid stated in his press conference today to not bet on Donovan for next week's game against the Giants. Personally, I would like to see McMahon get a shot.
Eagles Steal One From the Chargers
The Philadelphia Eagles came out of the gates lacking enthusiasm (yet again). I should clarify that; the offense came out lacking enthusiasm. The defense started the game like never before, literally shutting down LaDanian Tomlinson and the Charger's rushing attack. LT was consistently stopped behind the line of scrimmage thanks to linebacker Jeremiah Trotter.
Sunday's game was especially important for LaDanian Tomlinson because he just needed to score one touchdown in against the Eagles to hold the all-time record for consecutive games with a touchdown. He was tied for the lead at 18 consecutive games with a touchdown. He would remain at 18 consecutive games with a touchdown because the Eagles defense would not allow it. LT finished Sunday's game with seven rushing yards on 17 carries. Thats right- only seven yards on the ground. Tomlinson averages 108 rushing yards a game to add a little perspective.
Eagles defensive coordinator Jim Johnson really took advantage of the bye week to prepare for LT and te potent Chargers offense. Johnson admitted, on the official Eagles website, that even he was surprised at the performance of his defense but he certainly aware that they have to capability to stop any team's offense.
Although the defense put up a great performance, the offense was out of rhythm all day. McNabb was inaccurate and seemed to still be suffering from that abdominal injury. The defense can only control so much so by fourth quarter the Eagles found themsleves trailing 17-13 needing a touchdown to win. Andy Reid took a risky move and went for it on fourth and one in their zone and McNabb threw a horrible checkdown pass to Lamar Gordon which wasn't even close to being converted. That seemed to seal the Eagles fate after the defense stopped LT to only seven yards the Eagles would still lose the game?
In a twisted way the Eagles turning the ball over in their zoned helped them win the game. The Chargers went for a field goal to put the game on ice. On the field goal attempt Quintin Mikell found a seem and blocked the field goal! The ball took a perfect bounce to speedy DB Matt Ware who took it all the way back to pay dirt. It was a beautiful play. The Chargers had time to mount one more drive that was prematurely ended by Sheldon Brown who stripped the ball to essentially end the game.
There is no question on my mind that the Eagles stole this game from the Chragers but a win is a win and in a few weeks no one will remember how the Eagles won only that they won.
Eagles Prep for Chargers / McDougal out for the Season
This week the Eagles had their much needed bye. A number of their star players are suffering from nagging injuries and hopefully are getting healthy enough to compete against the San Diego Chargers. I don’t think the city of Philadelphia could handle another performance like the one against Dallas. At least the Cowboys beat the Giants on Sunday. I couldn’t take all of the trash talk from the seemingly endless amount of Giant fans on campus. Since their loss to the Cowboys, I haven’t heard them say a word.
In other Eagle news, it was just reported today that Eagles defensive end Jerome McDougal suffered complications from his initial surgery that took place over the summer. McDougal was shot in a Miami neighborhood after attending a University of Miami football game over the summer. McDougal was initially expected to return to practice around midseason but he had to receive surgery again due to complications from the initial surgery. He will now sit out the rest of the season. He would’ve been a nice addition to the beat up Eagles line but now Eagles must go yet another season without McDougal. McDougal has been haunted by injuries ever since he was drafted in the first round by the Eagles a few years back. It is unfortunate because reports out of mini camp this summer were that he was the most improved player over the offseason.
Eagles hope to get back on track this Sunday against the much improved San Diego Chargers in Philadelphia. The true test will be if the Eagles defense can stop Ladanian Tomlinson, arguably the best running back in the NFL.
Eagles Post Poorest Performance Yet
The Eagles game this past week was so bad I turned it off by the third quarter. The Eagles -yet again - started the game extremely flat. It's getting very old and, now, a bit concerning. The Eagles team is certainly missing a few components from past years. First off, an injured David Akers is a bigger concern than some realize. Todd France will not be there in the clutch when we need him; that is if we are in any important situation where he needs to hit a clutch field goal. Much more importantly, the Donovan McNabb situation is very worrisome. It doesn't make me feel good at all that he is playing with an injury that will not improve until he gets surgery. So it is a certainty that he will be at least as beat up as he is now for the rest of the season. I believe it is only a matter of time before he has to sit out and recouperate or maybe end his season for good.
I usually go through the game and explain what happened and who scored but I was so angry all Sunday afternoon that I had to go outside to calm down and I probably only watched a half hour of the actual game. In addition to that I purposely avoided Sportscenter the next day to not see any highlights of the game.
Next week's bye could not come at a better time. It gives any injured players tim eto recover and the Eagles a chance to pull themselves back together and start playing like they are the NFC champs.
Eagles Mount Comeback to Beat Chiefs
The underdog Philadelphia Eagles staged an improbable comeback to beat the Kansas City Chiefs 37-31. The Eagles came out flat once again letting running back Priest Holmes run all over them. The Eagles were plagued with a helpless defense and an inaccurate quarterback on offense. But the worst was the shotty special teams which was responsible for two fumbles and a Dante Hall kickoff return for a touchdown. To add to the destruction, newly signed placekicker Todd France started off his NFL career with a blocked field goal and a missed PAT. I know I said it for last week's game but this one did not look like the Eagle's would be able to pull it out.
The Eagles allowed themselves to get down by a score of 17-0 before they started to come alive. Sheldon Brown helped spark the comeback with an interception return for a touchdown in which he interrupted a Eddie Kennison slant route and ran 40 yards to give the Eagles a quick six points. Before the second quarter ended the Chiefs had a costly turnover where runningback Larry Johnson fumbled the ball after meeting Jevon Kearse in the backfield. With a score of 24-6 and the ball on midfield the Eagles were ready. They quickly put a drive together which ended with a 7-yard pass from McNabb to Owens and the Eagles narrowed the margin to 24-13 just before the half.
The Second Half was all Eagles. The Chiefs experienced a scoring drought that would last until the last few minutes of the game. McNabb began to find his way and his accuracy improved dramatically. The Eagles started the second half scoring with a successful Todd France field goal and the Eagles did not stop the scoring until they posted 37 on the scoreboad. McNabb found Owens the entire second half with little to no coverage. Owens ended the day with 11 catches and a touchdown which puts him at one shy of 100 touchdown receptions. The Chiefs scored once more on a Dante Hall touchdown but it was too little too late and in the end the Chiefs could not recover from an entire half of inactivity.
This is getting pretty old talking about how bad the Eagles play every week. The Eagles lost 27-17 to the New York Giants in a game where they never seemed to have a legitimate chance to win.
