Sports

Post-Game, Week 1: Philadelphia Eagles Beat Carolina Panthers

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Well that was a shocking outcome. The problem is that the only thing we learned from the Eagles’ 38-10 stomping of the Carolina Panthers is that Jake Delhomme absolutely sucks.

Delhomme finished his day in the 3rd-quarter after completing 7 of 17 passes for 73 yards with an incredible four INTs. For those of you keeping track at home, Jake has now thrown nine INTs in his last seven quarters of football. This is not a good QB.

The Eagles defense must be given credit for catching the misguided and wounded ducks that Jake threw, but not too much. Hell, the Eagles scored 38-points and the offense should get even less credit than the defense.

The whole game turned on a 2-minute 44-second sequence in the 2nd-quarter where the Eagles scored 21 points. It started with sack of Delhomme by Trent Cole, in which he forced a fumble. The Eagles recovered the ball for a TD. The Panthers then had to quickly punt after doing nothing offensively. That’s when DeSean Jackson returned the punt 85-yards for another TD. He wasn’t even touched. As if things weren’t going badly enough for the Panthers and Delhomme, he was picked off again on the next series by Sheldon Brown, who returned the INT to the Panthers 9 yard line. The Eagles scored a touchdown on a McNabb pass to TE Brent Celek on the very next play. In all, the Eagles scored 21 points and the offense was on the field for a whole six seconds.

This sequence got the Panthers totally out of their game plan, which was to pound the ball all day on the ground. It worked perfectly on the opening drive, where the Panthers ran on 13 of 16 plays and scored a TD. Once they got behind and had to throw the ball, it was over for the Panthers.

Credit has to go to the Eagles defense and rookie defensive coordinator Sean McDermott. They put their foot on the throat of the Panthers offense and didn’t let them up. They applied constant pressure and took advantage of the Panthers mistakes. OK, it was almost all Delhomme’s mistakes, but they didn’t drop all the easy picks or not fall on the easy fumbles. The Eagles’ defense finished the game with 5 sacks, 5 interceptions, and 2 fumble recoveries, one of which was for a TD. All in all, a good day’s work.

The offense was not so efficient. McNabb was only 10-for-18 for 79-yards, with 2 TDs and 1 INT.  He also rushed for a TD. The problem is that every Eagles fan really wished he hadn’t scored that TD. When McNabb scored his rushing TD, he took a very late and very cheap hit to the back from a Panthers defender or two. The reports are that McNabb has cracked ribs and is sure to miss some time. Early reports have him out 2 to 4 weeks, but we won’t know for sure until he can be thoroughly checked. It will also depend on how well McNabb can play with the obvious pain of cracked ribs.

The future looks bleak for the Eagles at the QB position judging from the performance that Kevin Kolb gave when he came into the game. Kolb went 7-for-11, for 23-yards. Really. He also fumbled a handoff, took the only two sacks the Panthers got and was lucky to not throw an INT on a really bad pass.

Due to the huge lead, the Eagles did the unthinkable and actually ran the ball more than they threw it. This is as unusual as the appearance of Haley’s Comet. They ran the ball 32 times and threw it 29 times. The majority of the runs were obviously in the 2nd half, as the Eagles nursed time off the clock. It’s what Andy Reid should do, but rarely if ever does. It probably had a lot to do with McNabb not being out on the field too. Or maybe he’s finally able to see all the running plays on that chart he holds during games now that he lost weight in the off-season. They must have been on the bottom of the chart that was blocked by his big belly.

I admit that I was wrong about the outcome of the game, but there were some very disturbing trends necessary to bring to light. Against an opponent with a QB who doesn’t suck, they might have lost. Before the game got away from the Panthers they marched right down the Eagles throats with the run. MLB Omar Gaither is still small. The defense had a stupid 15-yard face mask penalty to extend that opening TD drive by the Panthers. LT Jason Peters got called for a false start on each of the first two series. McNabb had to run for his life on the Eagles first offensive play. Kevin Kolb isn’t exactly taking advantage of his opportunities is he? And Quitin Demps really is the dumbest player in the NFL. He successfully defended his title by running into the Panthers’ punt returner for a 15-yard penalty that got them out of a hole.

To be fair, let’s point out some positives. The Special Teams looked good and not just on the punt return TD. The DTs, Patterson and Bunkley, had a nice game in the middle. The Panthers didn’t have a chance to stay with the run, but the Eagles only gave up 86 yards on 28 running plays. I didn’t hear RT Winston Justice’s name once as he made his 2nd career start. Did you notice that Trent Cole was lined up as a LB on the play where he forced the Delhomme fumble that turned into a TD? Nice little wrinkle by McDermott. And it seems that Sheldon Brown has put his contract issues behind him and has taken over as the leader of the team. He was only defensive player to speak from the podium at the post game press conference. That honor always belonged to Brian Dawkins. Brown has been with the team longer than any other defensive player, he is a true leader on and off the field, the other players respect him and he produces on the field.

I still don’t know what the Eagles are going to be this season. As I said, this game got away from the Panthers early and, to their credit; the Eagles took advantage of some horrific QB play from Delhomme. There were negatives and positives to take out of the game, but considering the final score was 38-10, the positives outweigh the negative for at least this week. Next week, the Eagles host the New Orleans Saints and Drew Brees, fresh off his six TD performance. Something tells me we’ll get a better read on the team in that game.

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