Grading The Eagles: Week 2

Two weeks in, and for the Eagles, there may be as many questions as there are answers.  Then again, they did play against the most prolific offensive machine in the NFL, and tried counter-punching with a QB making his first career start.  We must give Kolb some credit, though, as he played a great first half, only starting to falter when the green-birds fell behind early in the second. 

 The defense was the complete opposite of last week’s unit, but that could (and should) be contributed to going up against arguably the best QB in the NFL, and not having your starting QB to keep your own defense on the sidelines and get a much needed breather.

Defensive Stats - Quick Hits: Sacks – INT-1 FF-1 SACK-2

D-Line:
The D-Line did hold their own against the rushing attack for New Orleans, but still gave up over 100 yards.  The reason they are being graded as a C+ is because when it counted most, like on Reggie Bush’s 19-yard TD run in the 4^th, they couldn’t get it done.  They were over-matched by the offensive line of NO all day, and only created two sacks.  That is not Eagles football, and Sean McDermott had a rude awakening about what needs to be done to get at elite quarterbacks.  Overall, the D-Line needs to perform better, period.

Grade: C+

LBs:
The line backing corps looked tired all day, and most likely, they were.  The Eagles defense could not come up with a big stop at any point during the game, forcing only 3 punts and 1 turnover.  The line backers were picked apart by Brees, and allowed Shockey to average over 10 YPC.  Heath Evans got a questionable TD call, but I still put the blame for that on the LBs for not being in the right spot, and not making the tackles.  Again, the LBs need to do some work to prepare for KC next week.

Grade: C

DBs:

After raving about the DBs last week, they left a lot to be desired after their performance against the Saints.  Again, I feel that Drew Brees has the ability to make even the best defenses look pedestrian, and I think he proved that against an Eagles squad on Sunday.  The DBs played horribly.  They couldn’t tackle.  They couldn’t cover.  They couldn’t tip a god-forsaken pass to breakup a TD pass where Colston was blanketed.  I was disgusted with how they played as a unit.  On the bright side, Macho Harris is showing that he was worth the 5^th round pick, and now is ready to continue as a starter in our safety slot.  He had a FF and seemed to be where he needed to be on almost every play.

Grade: D

All in all, the defense got worked this week.  There are many factors that caused this, including fatigue from being on the field too often, and the sheer talent on the offensive side of the ball for the Saints.  Hopefully they learn from this, and if/when we meet the Saints again, something different happens.

Offensive Stats - Quick Hits: TDs-2 Players with at least 1 Rec-7 Rushing Avg: 3.82 YPC

Just looking at the quick hits of the stats…Kolb did a good job at spreading the ball around, as he hit 7 different targets, while McNabb hit 8 last week.  The big difference is the fact that our rushing game lost almost 2 whole YPC over last week.  This was against a Saint’s defense that was supposed to be ‘weak’.  It looks like they were trying to answer their critics last week, giving up only 85 yards on the ground.

O-Line:
The offensive line only gave up 2 sacks, but they couldn’t create a constant pocket for Kolb to throw the ball in.  I can attribute that to Kolb not having the pocket presence we are accustomed to with Donovan under center.  I saw many times where Kolb dropped back to pass, and instead of stepping up into the pocket to find a receiver, he immediately scrambled when the outside of the Saints defensive line started pushing in.  That’s the goal of a pocket, let them push in from the outside, and stand in the middle.  I just don’t know that Kolb was comfortable in the pocket, so I feel he had a big part in making the O-line look bad.  3.82 YPC is not going to get it done, guys.  We need to get back to fundamentals, and quickly.  If not, this has the makings of a long season.

Grade: C+

QBs:
With McNabb sidelined with a cracked rib, the reigns were handed over to Kevin Kolb to make his first career start.  Many fans wanted and expected to see Garcia, if not starting, as soon as Kolb made his first mistake.  Well, after the second play of the game for the Eagles, and a 71-yard strike to DeSean Jackson, the fans stopped calling for Garcia, and started cheering for Kolb.  That was good for him, he got his confidence up, and made an amazing throw.  The rest of the first half, he played well.  When the Eagles fumbled the opening kickoff for the second half and then Kolb forced a terrible ball in the direction of a double-covered Jackson, that’s where it started getting a little sticky.  Kolb started forcing throws, and he looked like the Kolb we expected to see in the first half.  If McNabb were in this game, it may well have been a different outcome.  You cannot expect to have Kevin Kolb lead your team in a shootout with the NFL’s finest offense.  It is a shame, but the Eagles as an organization needed to evaluate Kolb in real game action, including comeback situations.  He failed the test in the second half.

Grade: A (first half) F (second half) == C overall

RBs:
As noted above, the RBs didn’t get too much going this week.  Combined Westbrook and McCoy had over 100 yards on the ground and through the air, but that wasn’t enough, and in most cases, won’t be enough to win games.  Westbrook also went 0/1 on pass attempts, in what I thought was a brilliantly called play that Weaver just came up short on.  The pass was ugly, but it was catchable.  Weaver thought about moving forward a yard before he secured the ball, and that cost us the down (Subsequently, we went for it on 4^th-and-goal, and came back with 6 points because of a beautiful diving catch by Jason Avant.  The RBs will need to step up next week, but they can only go as far as the line will let them.

Grade: B

WRs/TEs:
I was excited to see Maclin get involved in the passing game after catching 0 balls in week one.  Kolb spread the ball around nicely, and did rack up 391 passing yards.  There were a few drops on key plays, but also some big grabs when they were needed.  Unfortunately, the gunslinger this week just couldn’t keep up with an elite passer in Drew Brees.  I can’t find too much to complain about here with the WR/TEs.  Celek was a monster, and I look to see him becoming one of the top-5 TEs in the NFL by year’s end. 

Grade: B

Special Teams:
Special teams play was terrible this week.  Sav Rocca looked like a 40-year old rookie again, with a couple of punts going less than 40 yards (when they needed to go 60+).  He aims for the sidelines, and hits them while his ball is still in the air, and that’s not what you want on a punt from behind your own 40-yard line.  Ellis Hobbs lost a key fumble to start off the second half.  He made up for it when he returned a kickoff 63 yards to set up a TD, but we couldn’t get the points back that we gave to the Saints with that fumble.  Unfortunately, we couldn’t get the job done.  I feel that the fumble in the beginning of the second half was the beginning of the end, as we gave all the momentum back to the visitors.  For that gaff alone, the Special Teams unit will have to get an F on their report card.  Covering the ball while performing your KR duties is elementary, and cannot be overlooked.  This unit will have to play better to put the team in better position to win games.  Dave Akers was perfect again, 2/2 in FG, and 2/2 in XP.

Grade: F

The Eagles need to play better football.  The QB situation will be even crazier come this week, with Vick back on the field.  I really liked how Andy and Marty worked in some Wildcat formations, and some really neat gadget plays.  We just need to get the timing of those plays down, and I think bringing Vick into the game will only help that.  As I said last week, hopefully we can go into the bye 2-1 and come back week 5 with a victory against TB and a healthy Donovan McNabb.  The Eagles SHOULD be able to beat the Chiefs, even without Super-5 on the field.