The Good, The Bad, The Ugly - Week 5
Last week after an amazing comeback it took me until nearly the end of the week to compose myself enough for a write-up. This week, after such a disheartening loss, a week is not enough time. That lose was bad. So bad that there is no real need for a GBU column. Let’s face it, where was the good? I guess I could give some props to Keyonta Marshall for “not sucking”. I could cheer on the fact that LJ Smith didn’t injure himself enough to be a concern. I guess the best news is that nobody died on the way to or from the game. In all seriousness, at least France looks like a solid replacement for Akers if this injury continues to nag him.
On the flip side, what’s the bad? Well, I would have to lump in the offense, defense, special teams, and coaching in that category. The Eagles were flat out manhandled from the word “GO!” There was rarely an instance in which fans could even bring themselves to cheer. This is what we call a “mulligan.”
The biggest concern about this loss, however, is the fact that it was a divisional game. The Eagles lay an egg at least once a season (think Steelers and Colts for starters) where they come out completely unprepared and never get back into the game. But typically it is against AFC opponents. This one puts us in a 1-2 conference and 0-1 division hole.
But I will lay off judgement this week. If national sports writer are continuing to acknowledge the Eagles as one of the top teams in the NFL and not writing them off after one bad loss, how can I? So the GBU takes a game off and heads into the bye wondering what to take from the season so far…
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Posted on October 14, 2005 by Thom | Filed Under Eagles, Philadelphia
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Thom, I likened last week’s performance to something like watching a professionally produced and acted play or orchestra only to show up and have the actors totally drop the bomb…missing lines, tripping, not coming onto stage at the right time.
Watching a professional event, you expect professional performance and last week the Eagles simply didn’t do it. They looked like sub-amateurs.
Hey, at least we know both our punter and our kicker can make a tackle if they need to!
Only good out of the last - I’ve been getting a lot more excited about preseason basketball.
Special teams has set the Eagles Defense up for failure each week. Seriously, think about it. It may be a fact that the Eagles D couldn’t stop the Dallas O on a single drive. But, it can’t help mentally and psychologically (and these things matter for a Defense) to effectively start off on your own side of the field for the first several possessions.
My view is this: The Eagles Defense is not as bad as they looked in the Dallas game, but they do have some serious issues with the short-medium passing game. I think its a Catch-22 situation: they can’t get good pressure on the QB, but the DBs and LBs can’t clamp down on the 3 and 5 step drops.
This hole in the defense will be exploited the rest of the season, though I don’t think to the effect that Dallas exploited it. Still, it’ll be huge when they are trying to close out games and find that they keep teams from driving down the field.