Despite the “Year of the Saints,” Eagles should fair well
If natives of New Orleans thought Hurricane Katrina was devastating, they haven’t seen anything yet. Sure, the Saints beat the Eagles way back in Week 6, but this is a whole new Birds team with a whole new attitude.
The general mood in Philadelphia with the newly installed run game, and fiery personality of Jeff Garcia, is that the Eagles will complete a run similar to that of the Pittsburgh Steelers of last season, and march into Miami to play in their second Super Bowl in the past three years. And the fans have every right to feel that way. It’s obvious that Garcia brings a new element to this team, as players seem to want to play for him because he is not up on the pedestal that McFive was. But before we go on, let us remember that no matter what happens Saturday night, we fans do have something to be proud of this year. This team came from the dead after standing at 5-6. After the Titans game, people felt we would be lucky to duplicate our record of 6-10 from the year before. Now, eight games later, we are playing for the right to go to the NFC Championship game for the fifth time in six years. Not too shabby.
The Superdome will be rocking with intensity and enthusiasm unlike any other stadium. If anyone watched the Saints first home game, in week 3 against Atlanta, you would have realized that it wouldn’t have mattered who they played. A Pro-Bowl team, (minus Tony Romo at quarterback) would have gotten spanked that night. There was just no way the Saints were losing that game. The Eagles really are coming in with an “us against the world mentality,” playing in the Hurricane-ravaged city.
But even Vegas making them 6-point underdogs, the Birds do have many things working in their favor. If Joe Horn does sit out with an injury, all three wide receivers they will field are rookies. Marques Colston, who was heading for rookie of the year honors before getting hurt and Vince Young taking off, literally, will be a tough match up with the Eagles banged up secondary. However, the other two receivers for the Saints, Devery Henderson, and Terrance Copper, are listed at 5’11, 200 lbs., and 6’1, 201 lbs. respectively. So perhaps the Eagles would be better suited to play physical at the line of scrimmage and not let these guys get off the line (much like the strategy Jon Fox used in the dreadful 14-3 defeat in the NFC Championship game in 2003).
Another rookie the Eagles might have their hands full with is this guy Reggie Bush; I hear he’s pretty good. But again, he’s a rookie. Sometimes players playing in big games, try to do too much instead of the little things that got them to this point in the first place. Remember in the BCS Championship game one year ago when Bush carelessly tried to lateral the ball to a teammate trying to make a big play? This was after a 35-yard dash on a screen pass that took them down in Texas territory, and made an unforced error that led to points for the Long Horns, who eventually went on to win. Now, I’m not saying look for Bush to have a repeat performance, but the big stage sometimes makes players look for the big play. The game plan will be much easier if they can keep Bush in check like they did in the regular season, holding him to only 61 total yards in week 6.
But do expect the Saints offense to move the ball downfield. They have the number one overall offense in the league and dangerous weapons at every skill position. So don’t be discouraged if they move the ball in between the 20’s, but once in the red zone, B-Dawk will have to come up huge like he has done the second half of the season.
Revenge is another huge factor. The Eagles definitely have week 6 in mind. That last drive when the Saints took 8 minutes off the clock and John Carney sent the Eagles home losers definitely is a pain not only in the fan’s side, but the players as well. In that match up, Andy Reid and Jim Johnson clearly got out-coached. Expect them to bring much more pressure than they did that week. In week 6, they did not sack Brees once and got down 10 points early. They were forced to play catch-up all game. There were mental mistakes as well. A muffed punt by Dexter Wynn, and four plays later, the Eagles were down two touchdowns. Now that Wynn is returning kicks for the Texans, that is one less thing we need to worry about. And expect a better game plan coming in; you know…now that they actually run the ball. No doubt that Rod Hood and Will James have a tough task ahead of them, but as we’ve seen, backups on this roster have done a phenomenal job taking over for pro-bowlers.
It was in week 6 that Sean Considine took over for Michael Lewis on defense
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Posted on January 12, 2007 by Rob | Filed Under Philadelphia
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