Philadelphia Eagles Grade Poorly After Loss to Titans
The Philadelphia Eagles headed to Tennessee to play a tough Titans team and unfortunately left with a loss. The game seemed to be going entirely in the Eagles' favor until the fourth quarter. Once there was 15 minutes left on the clock, the Eagles were just outplayed on every side of the ball and ended up losing the game.
This is the Eagles' first road loss, and their record dropped to 4-3. This puts the Eagles in second place in the NFC East, and depending on what happens with the Cowboys vs. Giants game on Monday, maybe tied for first.
Luckily the Eagles head into a bye week, so they will have plenty of time to work on the fundamental mistakes that occurred during the Titans game. Reflecting back, their is no way the Eagles should have lost this game, and they know that. It is going to be a tough plane ride back to Philadelphia.
Here is the Eagles' report card:
Honorable Mention: Kenny Britt: A+
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For those of you fantasy football fans who have Kenny Britt, you must be happier than he is.
Britt absolutely demolished the Eagles secondary. He showed no signs of slowing down and really pulled through in the fourth quarter to help the Titans win the game.
Talk about chemistry with a QB. Unfortunately it was with the backup, Kerry Collins. Hopefully for the Titans, this trend with Britt continues once Vince Young returns from injury.
Britt finished the game with seven receptions, 255 yards and three touchdowns.
Offense: D+
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I'm not sure what happened to the Eagles' deadly and fast-scoring offense. They must have left it back at the hotel, because there was not a single sighting of it at the game.
The Eagles may have had the lead for the majority of the game, but they still only scored 19 points the entire game. When they actually needed their offense to move the ball and put points on the board, there was nothing but three-and-outs and turnovers.
The Eagles managed to turn the ball over four times, which was one of the biggest reasons they didn't win the game.
Kevin Kolb looked panicked the entire game and had trouble getting any form of offense going. At least he could rely on David Akers to kick some field goals. Kolb finished the game with a 56.9 QB rating after only throwing one touchdown and two interceptions.
The Eagles' leading receiver was Jason Avant, who had six catches for 60 yards.
The rushing game was non-existent as LeSean McCoy was only able to rush for 48 yards on 16 attempts.
It was a poor showing from the Eagles' offensive unit.
Run Defense: A+
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For the third straight week, the Eagles defense has been able to contain an elite RB and hold them to under 100 yards. This week was no difference. But it was much more impressive because the Eagles were matched with one of, if not, the best RB in the entire NFL.
The Eagles' tough rushing defense was able to hold Chris Johnson to only 66 yards on 22 attempts. That is only an average of 2.8 yards a carry. Those are the numbers you like to see from your defense.
The entire defense was playing aggressively and holding Johnson to little to no gains. If the Eagles keep this type of rush defense up, they will be No. 1 in that category.
The Eagles did a great job containing Johnson, so rush defense is no longer something to worry about in Philadelphia.
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Pass Defense: F
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This may seem a bit overkill, giving the pass defense an F. But if you look at what happened over the course of the game, there is no other grade that would be acceptable.
Let's just start with the Britt-Collins passing connections. Some how the Eagles defense could not contain Britt, who scored two touchdowns in the fourth quarter to give the Titans the lead. Not only did Britt score, he only had seven receptions for 255 yards.
Once this guy caught the ball, the Eagles could not tackle him. They could not get him on the ground, and he would rip big chunks of yardage with every catch. His longest catch was 80 yards.
Some of you will bring up the fact that the Eagles secondary was able to get two interceptions. I am not going to take that away from them. The fact that the Eagles offense failed to score on any of the takeaways is definitely not the defense's fault.
The fact is the Eagles' pass defense gave up two touchdowns and two field goals in the fourth quarter. If the defense would have been able to stop a few of those drives, who knows what would have happened.
Collins finished the game with 276 yards, three touchdowns and two interceptions.
Special Teams: B-
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Akers being Akers hit every field goal attempted. That's a good sign from the last few weeks, when he had missed several.
The B- comes into play from Jorrick Calvin, who is filling in on punt returns for the injured DeSean Jackson. He looked like he was very capable, but during a punt return he had a very big fumble in the game.
Other than that, blocking was still a problem on punt returns. Kick return coverage seemed fine on kickoffs and returns.
Kudos to the Eagles special teams to containing the Titans' secret return weapon, Marc Mariani (43 yards on four punt returns).
Coaching: C-
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I'm not sure why Andy Reid did not try something new on offense after several three-and-outs and a couple of turnovers. The Eagles offense came onto the field, tried nothing new and continued to struggle throughout the entire game.
Aside from offense, I have to give the coaching staff credit for stopping Johnson and not allowing the big play on the ground . The defense ran a good mixture of blitz packages and linebacker coverages to make sure Johnson had no opportunities to make a big play.
However, even after the Eagles defense was torched twice by Britt, there was no change in defense to help keep him covered. Reid continued to let Britt and Collins pass the ball like they were just practicing their route running.
Part of this blame sits in the hands of the Eagles coaching staff on both sides of the ball. The reason Reid managed to pull the C- is because of the great containment on Johnson.
Conclusion: C-
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The Eagles simply should have won this game. But sloppy football and poor execution led to an easy win for the Titans.
This is not the type of play that gets a team to the Super Bowl, and it seems as if the Eagles have changed their mindset from a rebuilding year to serious playoff contender. I am fine with this move; the Eagles have shown that they can be serious contenders—just not in this game.
The Eagles are heading into the bye week. This could not be better timing, as it will give the team time to rethink their strategy and fix their mistakes. Following the bye, the Eagles host the Colts. This will be a tough game, and the Eagles need to work out all of the kinks that showed in this last loss to the Titans.
Let's keep our fingers crossed that the Eagles improve and show a new Philadelphia team against the Colts.
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