Sports
Post-Game, Week 2: New Orleans Saints defeat Philadelphia Eagles
I said the Philadelphia Eagles were like a bad soap opera last week and they proved to be good at following their script. Unfortunately, it was the script that I laid out describing how they would lose to the New Orleans Saints.
The Eagles got blown out by a superior team 48-22 and it was a total team effort. All three phases of the team chipped in meaningful miscues towards the loss. The defense could barely slow down the high-powered Saints offense. The offense couldn’t keep up with the aforementioned Saints offense. And the Special Teams had a fumble and what seemed like a penalty every time they were on the field.
It should have been obvious to anyone with eyes that the Saints offense was going to own the Eagles defense this week. Somehow the betting line had the Eagles favored. Good day for the bookies. Anyway, Drew Brees had all day long to sit in the pocket and find his receivers. The result was 25 - 34 for 311 yards and 3 TDs. And it looked a lot worse than that sitting in the stands watching Brees and the Saints offense put on a clinic. It must have seemed that way to Brees as well. “Believe it or not, I think we can still get a lot better.” Brees said after the game. Yeah, you only scored 93 points in your first two games Drew, what’s wrong with you?
On the other side of the field Kevin Kolb went 31- 51 for 391 yards, 2 TDs and 3 INTs. While the yardage and TDs are nice those three INTs are not. And I know that the Eagles were literally behind the whole game after the Saints scored a TD on the first possession of the game, but 51 passes? Really Andy? Guess you got that nasty running the ball crap out of your system against the Panthers last week, huh? Good job.
I understand that you need to throw the ball when you’re behind, but the game was close at halftime. The Eagles only ran the ball 18 times all game. A few of those were out of the Wildcat formation too. The problem is that the running game wasn’t working at all for the Eagles against the Saints. And as soon as the running game doesn’t work on a few plays it’s taken completely out of the mix by Reid. Not that you would want to try to control the ball and keep it out of Brees’ hands or anything.
I’ll give Kolb some credit in that he was under intense pressure all day and managed a few nice throws. The problem is those turnovers. At the start of the 2nd half the Eagles’ kick-returner fumbled the kickoff. The Saints then promptly scored a TD to make it 24-13 in favor of the Saints. On the very next possession, Kolb threw his first INT. A sideline pattern that exposed his complete lack of arm strength. The Saints scored another TD and the game was over. It was exactly what happened last week in Carolina, only this time it happened to the Eagles. Kolb even had an INT returned 97 yards for a TD by the Saints’ Darren Sharper.
The offense was bad, but the defense was worse. For all the praise the Eagles defense got after crushing the Panthers, they should get roasted for being little more than a speed bump for the Drew Brees and the Saints offense. The Saints amassed 421 yards of total offense. That’s not exactly a recipe for success. But what do you expect when you get almost no pressure on a great QB?
As if getting the snot knocked out of them wasn’t enough the Eagles suffered several injuries as well. Brian Westbrook injured the ankle he had surgery on in June. DeSean Jackson injured his groin and Asante Samuel left with an unspecified injury that I am going to assume is whiplash from getting burned repeatedly.
I took a lot of heat for trying to tell everybody that the Eagles weren’t as good as Jake Delhomme made them look in week 1. After getting dismantled by a good team with a great QB, maybe expectations of exactly what this Eagles team is will be a little bit more realistic.
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3 comments for “Post-Game, Week 2: New Orleans Saints defeat Philadelphia Eagles”
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Actually, like you usually do, your “script” laid out how they could either lose to the Saints or how they might possibly win. In fact, most of your articles put you in a position where you can come here and claim that you’re “always right” because you rarely commit one way or the other when you’re not mindlessly bashing Eagles management.
Fact is, Kolb had a very good day. Once he was forced to play from behind, he had no CHOICE but to throw. Now, I agree with everyone’s understanding that Reid is a pass-happy coach. But when your stub RB is dinged up and you’re playing from behind by 2 touchdowns, your team has no choice but to throw most of the time.
SHOCKINGLY - from you, there is no attacking of Reid for his gaffe right before the half. Under 2 minutes to go, deep in their own territory, he has Kolb throw a pass on third down when he should have burned about another 40-seconds off of the clock.
Instead of going in 10-10 and with major confidence, they go in down 17-13, in a deficit position and very likely with much less confidence than a 10-10 score would have delivered to the halftime speech.
Kolb had “2″ INTS. That last ditch hail-mary had zero impact on the game… and INT #2 had to be expected since they were going to have to chuck their way back into the game.
Good job, Bob. As usual, you put yourself in a position to be “always right” again, in Eskinesque fashion.
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