By G. Emrich

Upon Further Review:  Week One

Each week during the Eagles’ season I will be writing a segment called Upon Further Review.  The object of the article is to break down game film and evaluate individual performances.  I do this by taking advantage of the wonders of DVR and watching each snap between 3-5 times.  The goal is to see past all the media hype and fan overreaction, and do what the coaches do, watch the film and evaluate.

One disclaimer, it’s difficult to evaluate defensive backs and receivers because they’re rarely in screen for the entire play.  So let’s get to it, shall we.

QB- Kolb clearly struggled.  It doesn’t take a film review to establish that fact.  But in his defense the offensive line didn’t get its act together until the 2nd half, and a couple of his more curious decisions came post-concussion (missed a wide open Celek down the middle of the field and instead threw it directly to someone in a Green Bay uniform).  In the end he only attempted ten passes, many of which under duress, and that’s simply not a large enough sample size to make any judgments.  If he makes similar mistakes next time out then it’s time to start worrying, but a handful of bad passes shouldn’t have anyone stepping out onto the ledge.

Vick was Vick circa 2006.  He looked like he was back in the preseason, now it’s confirmed.  What was comforting to see was his decision making.  He’s never been an accurate passer, and he never will be.  He completed 16 of 24 passes, but few of them were what would be considered “accurate” throws.  But that comes with the territory.  The key for Vick is decision making.  He didn’t throw any interceptions and seemed to scramble at all the right times.  If he only did those two things for the rest of his career he would be a successful QB. 

RB- McCoy only received seven carries, but also contributed five catches, and pretty much looked two steps quicker than he did at any point last year.  The difference is dramatic.  Between being in much better shape and having a full season under his belt, it’s clear that we might actually have a weapon at the RB position this year.  He was fast, shifty and decisive.  Thank god for that bright spot, because losing Weaver is a tough blow.

WR- As stated above, there is just no way to do a proper evaluation on WR play based solely on what we see on TV.  And it’s probably not necessary.  Everyone knows what kind of players Jackson, Maclin and Avant are at this point.

TE- We won’t talk about Celek the receiver for the same reason we don’t evaluate the WR’s.  But we can evaluate Celek the blocker.  He didn’t stay into block very often, likely a result of the Eagles handing the ball off all of eight times during the entire game, combined with the fact that the Packers played nickel most of the game.  Celek has never been a great blocker, perhaps not even a good blocker, and that showed on Sunday.  His biggest error of course came on the Eagles’ last play.  It looked like the play was quite clearly designed to be executed between the tackles.  That’s where McCoy led to block, that’s where Vick ran, and even if it was an option for Vick to pop it outside, there was an unblocked Packer eliminating any chance of the play going there.  So, Celek’s only job is to seal Matthews to the outside, that’s it.  If he does that, McCoy can take out the LB trying to plug the hole and Vick has an easy first down, maybe more. And, it was an easy seal.  Matthews didn’t stunt inside, and Celek had every opportunity to step inside him and seal.  Celek said after the game that Matthews made a move to go outside, but this is a terrible excuse for two reasons.  One, the film doesn’t show that to be the case, Matthews simply held his ground at the snap.  Two, who cares if he goes up field to your outside, the play is designed to your inside.  Any outside move takes him out of the play.  It was a terrible play, and without a doubt cost the Eagles a chance to tie the game.

O-Line- I wouldn’t want to be an offensive lineman.  There’s no margin for error.  If you screw up two or three times in a given game then you didn’t do your job.  Keeping that in mind, none of the linemen had a great game.  Justice graded out the best, and he did handle Matthews for extended periods on Sunday.  Justice moves his feet well, shows a solid base, and uses his hands well.  He still struggles with the bull rush on occasion, so that bears watching.  Cole didn’t have his best game.  He blew several assignments and was beaten badly a couple of times.  He doesn’t have long arms, so taller DTs can occasionally get their hands on him and rip before he has a chance to engage.  He did do a better job in the second half.  McGlynn did fine replacing Jackson, though he was rarely tested one-on-one, and thus spent most of the afternoon assisting Cole and Herremans.  We’ll see if he’s tested more this week.  Herremans also blew a couple assignments and was also beaten a couple times, but like Cole, seemed to get better as the game went on.  Peters was his usual inconsistent self.  Dominant at times, head scratching at times.

D-Line- Along with Vick, the biggest bright spot on Sunday.  Cole had a stellar first half.  I didn’t think it was possible, but I actually appreciate him more when reviewing every snap.  He’s a relentless, athletic DE who pretty much does everything well.  Graham was much better upon review than I first thought.  He actually spent more time at DT than DE, and was consistently excellent.  He collapsed the pocket on a regular basis and won his one-on-one battle almost every time.  It will be interesting to see where Graham lines up more as the season goes on, DT or DE.  Parker had a great first half as well, but for whatever reason didn’t line up at the left DE spot as much in the second half.  Barnes received quite a bit of time at the left DE spot as well, and he graded out just okay.  He definitely has some speed of the edge though.  Bunkley had a very good game.  He won his battles consistently, was excellent in the run game, and even provided a bit of pressure in the passing game.  Patterson was just okay.  One thing you notice about Patterson when you watch him on film is that he doesn’t have great balance.  He’s typically stout at the point of attack, but once you get him moving in a certain direction he’s usually not stopping.  So when he loses a battle, he loses it badly.  Laws and Dixon were both solid in backup duty.

LB- Not a bright spot.  No one played well.  Bradley wasn’t even playing all that well before getting hurt.  Gaither was horrendous early when he came in, but got things under control to a certain degree later on.  Gaither just doesn’t look athletic out there, and he wasn’t reading plays well either, so let’s all pray that Bradley is back soon.  Gaither in the middle is not going to cut it.  Sims is crazy to watch on film.  It appears his job on running plays to his side is to blow up the FB as quickly as possible and ignore the RB.  If that is in fact his job, then he did a hell of a job, but I’m guessing he’s supposed to make attempt at finding the ball carrier from time to time as well, but who knows.  When he’s not in pure attack mode he doesn’t look all that comfortable.  He didn’t make any plays, didn’t read plays very well, and pretty much didn’t do anything productive in either the passing game or the running game.  Jordan was very mediocre as well, missed a couple tackles, filled the wrong gap a few times, and just didn’t do much at all.  The thing that really shows up on tape is that this isn’t a very instinctive group.  Whether it’s a coaching issue or a talent issue is up for debate.

DB- Briefly, Samuel still doesn’t like to tackle.  The play at the safety position wasn’t great either.  Allen played like a rookie at times, didn’t quite read plays correctly in run support, and looked a little tentative on one or two plays in the passing game.  We’ll see how he progresses as the year goes on.

Lastly, here are few general observations after doing the DVR review. 

-         Special Teams, yuck. 

-         The Eagles are not a good blitzing team, and weren’t a good blitzing team last year.  I’ve never seen a team bring the house and not lay a finger on the opposing QB more than the Eagles.  They just don’t do a good job designing, disguising or executing many of their blitzes.  It’s a good thing the D-Line was able to win some one-on-one matchups and Rodgers panicked a few times.  Green Bay left some plays out on the field. 

-         Why did the Packers not call more delayed blitzes and why did they not twist more up front?  They had great success with both of these strategies early, but rarely employed them. 

-         I doubt anyone noticed, but Mike Patterson is lucky to have survived the game without serious injury.  On the Packers’ last real drive of the game Patterson was the recipient of an ultra dirty block(and very illegal, I’m assuming the Eagles with see this on film and ask the league to look into it), which was missed by the officials.  While engaged with another blocker, the Packers’ right tackle literally dives at Patterson’s knees from behind, which is illegal, dirty and dangerous, and it’s a miracle Patterson didn’t break an ankle or tear an ACL.  It’s the kind of play that used be called by the umpire stationed behind the defensive line.  Patterson is lucky to be walking today. 

-         And of course it wouldn’t be an Eagles’ article if we didn’t question a coaching decision.  The Eagles are, often to a fault, extremely aggressive.  Aggressive is good and entertaining, but you need to know when to pull back.  Case in point, the Eagles’ last drive before halftime.  Down only seven, less than two minutes to go, two timeouts remaining, a struggling QB, and the opposing team finding their rhythm on offense.  Most teams would play in conservatively under these circumstances, probably a draw play followed by a little urgency.  You don’t want to give the other team an opportunity to score before halftime and you’re going to get the ball first at the start of the second half.  Of course, this is Andy/Marty you’re talking about, so what do you think they do?  Incomplete pass, short pass completion, hurry-up, incompletion.  Andy Reid is so painfully incompetent with time management that it didn’t even surprise me.  Hell, I expected it.  But it’s still extraordinarily frustrating.  Why are you running a hurry-up offense on third down under those circumstances?  It’s indefensible.  You run the play clock down to almost zero (which would have left around 40-45 seconds left).  Snap the ball.  If you get a first down then you still have two timeouts left and thus plenty of time to get in field goal range.  And if you don’t convert then the Packers now have much less time to drive down the field for a half ending, two score lead producing, field goal, which is of course exactly what happened.  But again, these types of horrendous game/time management decisions are par for the course during the Andy Reid era.

Next week, Detroit.  We better be reviewing a win.