Sports

Week 6 - Oakland Raiders: Philadelphia Eagles Preview

The Philadelphia Eagles are flying to the West Coast to face yet another one of the worst teams in the NFL. It should be an easy win for the Eagles, but you just never know.

The Oakland Raiders are a truly putrid team. They have the worst offense in the entire NFL and they have the 2nd worst defense overall in the entire NFL. If that wasn’t bad enough their head coach might get arrested soon for beating up one of his defensive coaches during a meeting a few months ago. That was before he knew how bad the defensive was going to play. Even their own fans seem to have given up on the Raiders, as the game will be blacked out in Oakland for the second time in three games so far this season.

The Eagles look much better, but that may just be a byproduct of playing the dregs of the NFL. They got smoked by the only winning team they have played so far, the Saints. The Eagles offense is ranked 8th in the NFL. The defense is ranked 3rd overall in the NFL, but again, that is due more to the level of their competition than their actual talent.

The Raiders can’t run the ball and have the worst passing offense in the NFL. The running game has suffered because of injuries and an overall lack of talent. Injuries to RB Darren McFadden and LG Robert Gallery have taken a toll on a team that went into the season with the intent to run the football. The reason the Raiders wanted to establish the run each game is that QB JaMarcus Russell sucks. He has a league worst .421 completion percentage and has just one TD pass and four INTs in 121 attempts. He’s even thrown in three fumbles as an added bonus. Yeah, that’s how you become the worst offense in the NFL.

Adding to their offensive woes is the fact that their only legitimate receiving threat is TE Zach Miller. The starting WRs are rookies Louis Murphy (who?) and 1st round bust Darrius Heyward-Bey. Heward-Bey has 4.29 speed, but he only has two catches. That’s only two more catches than the guy everyone thought they should have drafted, Michael Crabtree, who hasn’t played a down this season.

The Raiders defense is a mixed bag. Their defensive backs are outstanding, but they simply cannot stop the run. Nnamdi Asomugha might be the best CB in the NFL and most teams don’t even throw to his side anymore. Against another opponent an inability to stop the run would be deadly. Luckily for the Raiders, the Eagles usually don’t even bother to run the football and when they do it is completely ineffective.

The Eagles are finally healthy on offense, if you consider what Brian Westbrook has become to be the real deal. Runningbacks have a short shelf life in the NFL and Westbrook appears to have reached his expiration date right before our eyes in the last two seasons. He has only three runs of 8 yards or more this season. Backup LeSean McCoy has shown flashes, but he’s still a rookie and he gained only 14 yards on 6 carries last week against the Buccaneers. The injury-depleted offensive line can’t seem to open any holes either. The Eagles are averaging only 3.5 yards per carry on running plays that are not QB scrambles or out of the Wildcat formation. That’s not good.

The WRs and TE have been very good so far, but that is to be expected when you throw the ball constantly like the Eagles do. Jeremy Maclin proved last week that he can beat a bad CB, learning a new defense, without any help over the top whatsoever. We’ll see how he does going forward. DeSean Jackson is an emerging star, with two 100-yard games already this season and TE Brent Celek leads the Eagles in receptions.

Donovan McNabb had a nearly perfect game against the Bucs last week, where he threw only 5 incompletions. Anyone who has seen McNabb throughout his career knows he’s in for a market correction and soon. The Raiders pass defense will provide a stern test for McNabb and the Eagles passaholic coach, Andy Reid. It will be interesting to see if Fat Andy has a clue. I doubt it.

The Eagles defense always crushed bad QBs and Russell is a bad QB. Defensive coordinator Sean McDermott blitzed inexperienced Bucs’ QB John Johnson on 60 percent of the defensive snaps (45 of 75) last week. The Raiders can expect at least that much pressure if not more. Russell was sacked six times last week and fumbled three times. The Raiders have the third most giveaways (12) in the NFL, thanks to seven by Russell alone. The Eagles should dominate the Raiders offense, but their inability to consistently stop the run is a worry. Jeremiah Trotter was brought out of retirement to help stop the run and provide some leadership, but he looked like a guy who was just signed out of retirement last week.

The lone bright spot for the Raiders is their Special teams. Punter Shane Lechler is the best punter in the NFL. That’s kind of like being the tallest midget in the circus, but this is the Raiders we’re talking about here. There aren’t many positives. The Eagles coverage teams are pretty bad and returner Johnnie Lee Higgins is a threat to take one the distance for a score.

Anybody who has ever read any of my Eagles articles knows I hate Andy Reid, but even I have to give him the edge in a matchup against Oakland’s Tom Cable. That guy could only be a head coach for Al Davis.

The Eagles will win this game because the Raiders are that damn bad. I think it will be closer than most, but only because the Eagles are traveling cross-country and this is one of those classic “trap games” that lots of teams tend to lose. The Eagles may be looking ahead to next week’s matchup against division rival Washington. Again, the Eagles are lucky to be playing the Raiders this week. Let’s call it a 27-20 victory for the Eagles.

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