Bury this Eagles Season like the Lifeless Carcass that it Was
One more win. That’s all it would have taken. One more win and the Eagles would have been playing this weekend in Seattle for the right to go back to Dallas and compete in a rubber match with the Cowboys. All they had to do was not muff a punt against Green Bay in week 1, move the ball 30 yards in 90 seconds and watch Akers nail a 40 yard field goal for the win. Or seeing how he performed all season, would he have missed it? All they had to do was show up on the Monday night against Washington and score one lousy touchdown and then who knows what would have happened. Or would it have even mattered? If they had not given up 12 sacks AND had Brian Westbrook during the first game against the Giants, would they have lost by only ten points? What about if they had stopped a terrible Bears offense on the final drive of the game and won against a team that had absolutely no business beating us? Or were the Bears just as average as we were? If Akers doesn’t hit the goal post against the Giants, do the Eagles pull that one out in overtime? Who knows.
What is the real identity of this team? Do the organization, coaches, or players even know? Too many lapses in intensity and too many missed opportunities in the red zone killed this team. How can you have the 6th ranked offense in the NFL, yet only be 17th in points scored? Why is it that every dumb fan thinks our #1 priority is a ‘stud wide receiver’, sports radio thinks we need to address the secondary, and my seven year old neighbor thinks we need a new QB? Why is there so much uncertainty about everything with the Eagles? Are we ok at linebacker because Stewart Bradley played two good games? Do we need a new kicker? Are we watching Brian Westbrook finally stay healthy and play through the prime of his career, yet winning nothing? Is all of this scary to you as fans?
What the organization needs to do is simple: strive to build a top 5 defense and secure a better than average kick returner. That’s it. No wide receivers. No new coach. Maybe a new kicker.
What the Eagles of the past 20 years have always been linked to, what most of the great teams in the NFL have always had, and what Football 101 tells you, is that you need a good defense to compete. Period. Are there exceptions? Maybe a few, but let’s think about this for a brief moment. Newsflash, the Eagles have been successful this season because of their defense. The Eagles held their opponents to one offensive touchdown or less in 9 of their 16 games. Amazing. With the exception of the Dallas rape at home and the clash with the Patriots, the Eagles never gave up 30 points. They played in a division where every team was .500 or above and they still finished 4th in the NFC, giving up 18.8 points a game. They also were 4th in the NFC in rushing yards per game (95.8), 9th in passing yards per game, and 5th in total yards per game. Not bad for a team that didn’t have Lito Sheppard and Brian Dawkins for significant periods of time. By the way the top seven teams in the NFC in total defensive yards per game? Tampa Bay, Giants, Redskins, Cowboys, Eagles, Packers, and Seahawks. Notice anything? All of those teams except the Eagles will be playing the next two weeks, while Marty Mornhinweg is sitting in his bathtub playing with his whale eye. However they do it, the Eagles need to get a safety and a corner in the off season, and both of whom need to be able to conceivably step in next year and contribute immediately if needed.
As for kick returner and special teams in general…..something needs to be done. If I see Reno Mahe returning punts next year I may go into cardiac arrest. The numbers do not lie: Kickoff Returns (24th), Punt Returns (24th), FG% (28th), Punt Yardage (19th), Punts inside the 20 (19th), and Net Punt Yards (28th). David Akers was 12/12 from 20-29 yards, 10/10 from 30-39 yards, 1/6 from 40-49, and 1/4 from 50+. That is troubling.
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January 2nd, 2008 at 10:55 pm
Your points are well taken, save for the wideout. I see this as a problem. There were plenty of games that we simply could not get anyone open. I take the Giants game at home as a prime example. Anemic offense, nobody to stretch the field against a banged up second string Giants secondary…. we need a stud to put with Curtis and Brown. You cannot ignore the success that some other teams have had this season with big, fast, strong recievers (and also the one year we had one). If we start next season with the core of recievers that we have now, I see trouble. Keep Baskett, Curtis, Brown, add a solid guy is free agency (Moss, Berrian, Bryant Johnson, Andre Davis, and Devery Henderson) and kill Greg “sniff glue” Lewis, give Avant a chance to compete for a roster spot and try to capitalize while Westbrook still has it. As #5 pointed out himself, none of the Eagles core players are getting any younger.
January 4th, 2008 at 11:06 am
Woulda, Coulda, Shoulda.
As a season ticket holder the past two years, I have been to every Eagles home game save the opening preseason game against the Browneyes of the 2006 season. I can tell you when our Eagles are fired up. I can tell you when the team has zero passion to be out there on the field. We lost three games at home this year because we lacked the heart to go out and win them. And I attribute those loses (Foreskins, Beers, and Seacocks) to Andy Reid’s criminal sons distracting our head coach from properly preparing his players. I like to think of what might have been, had Garrett Reid and the Brittster not been shooting up their heroine and gats. That shouldn’t be a problem next season. But in the modern NFL, if you’re not getting better, stronger, faster, smarter in the offseason, you’re falling behind your opponents. With that in mind, here’s what the Philadelphia Eagles need to accomplish in the 2008 off season:
Get Asante Samuel from the Patriots. The Eagles defense came up with only 19 turnovers this season, dead last in the NFL. Get us a new DB, preferrably a corner who can cover like white on rice and step up when Lito inevitably gets injured. I love that Gator, but he’s more fragile than Samuel L. Jackson in Unbreakable.
I agree with Jack Arute’s comment above here. Why not add a bull cock receiver? Would it be at the cost of acquring a DB who can cover and tackle receivers, intercept the ball, and inspire fear in opposing offenses? A kicker capable of hitting FGs longer than 40 yds consistently, and a kick/punt return guy who does more than just catch the ball? I don’t think it has to, given the amount of CAP room Banner has to work with.
How many wins did we have with that deutsch bag, TO on our team in 2004? He scored like 84 points for the Eagles that season before getting Roy Williamsed. And since I just checked the veracity of that stat (it’s right, btw) I came up with another one: He accounted for 51 first downs for the Eagles that season. That Eagles team made opponents their bitches all season long, on both sides of the football. We went undefeated in the division. A division that has put three teams into the playoffs the last two seasons, and two before that.
I’m not naive enough to say that w/o Owens we wouldn’t have made it to the Playoffs. And history proved we didn’t need him to make it to the super bowl. But adding a wideout who’s big, strong, fast, and can get separation, stretch the field long or go over the middle will make the rest of the Eagles’ offense better and you know it. It forces opponents to focus less upon Westbrook and respect our passing game. Brown and Curtis will have more freedom in the secondary matching up against teams #2 corner and/or linebackers.
None of the following schmoes should be wearing midnight green next season: LJ Smith, Jevon Kearse, David Akers, Will James, Greg Lewis, and Reno Mahe. I’d throw Hank Baskett and JR Reed into that group if they didn’t play on special teams in addition to offense and defense, respectively, which, given how horrendous it’s been in recent memory, might not be a reason for keeping them on. I think Rocca came on in the second half of the season, and would like to see what he’s capable of. The aussie did manage to avoid punting to Devon Hester in the game against the Bears so I say give him another shot to earn a spot on the team in training camp.
January 8th, 2008 at 9:59 am
Don’t let Joe Banner down: http://www.philadelphiaeagles.com/news/Story.asp?story_id=14953