Sunday, November 22, 2009

Great Win in Chicago

***

The streaks are over.

* We won on Sunday night.

* We beat the Bears.

* We won a close game.

* Donovan led us on a 4th Qtr comeback.


Boy, that feels good. There were plenty of things to be happy about. We had 30 runs for 157 yards. We ran for a 1st down late in the game when it was critical to eat up some of the clock. The OL had a good day run blocking. Andy managed the game very well. We had all our timeouts late in the game if needed. We were 2 of 3 in the RZ. We also got a long TD pass. We blocked a FG after a turnover. The quick change defense was outstanding. We had 3 turnovers, but didn't give up many points. I have to check to verify, but I think it was just one FG.

Most importantly, the defense came up big late in the game. We stopped CHI to preserve the win. We were the clutch team. Feels good to say that.

Next up, WAS.

Oh yeah...if the season ended today...we'd have the #5 spot in the NFC.
_

20 comments:

Myron said...

A win is always nice. It feels good to win a close game on primetime TV.

However, my enthusiasm is dampened by the realization that if Jay Cutler wasn't complete, unmitigated garbage, we probably would have lost this game to the tune of 14-21 points.

The team showed alot of heart, but the mistakes were still there, the reliance on the big play was still there, and alot of the general mediocrity that we've seen over the past few weeks is still there.

How did we leave so many WRs wide open on so many crucial plays? Thank God, again, that Jay Cutler is trash.

McNabb was inconsistent and mostly mediocre. Had some big plays, but also seemed to throw way too many dirtballs again.

Rookies making rookie mistakes yet again. McCoy fumbles it, DeSean doesn't protect the ball and it gets knocked out of his hands, etc.

The defense just isn't the same. Jim Johnson used to mix it up masterfully with regard to the blitz; McDermott just isn't subtle enough. His defense is far too feast-or-famine for my tastes.

I don't know. I know this team has talent and potential, but with the way they are playing at this late point in the season, I will honestly be surprised if they make the playoffs this year.

orangecrush007 said...

Sav Rocca has GOT TO GO! That 17 yard punt was so freaking pathetic, That was a horrible decision giving up Dirk Johnson for this guy Ill take consistency over whatever the hell Reid sees in Rocca

Tommy Lawlor said...

@ Myron

Cutler missed 2 TDs. 3 throws, but 2 of them were on same drive.

We dropped 2 INTs. Gotta factor that in. Both teams made mistakes. We overcame 3 turnovers.

Disagree totally about the big play. We didn't throw downfield enough in this game. We got one long run and the long TD, but really did a good job of moving the chains. We were 7 of 15 on 3rd downs. We were also 2 of 3 in the RZ. That's huge. We won because we scored TDs and CHI kicked FGs.

We were the clutch team tonight. That's a good thing. Sure, there were mistakes. We overcame them. Next step is to eliminate the mistakes.

Myron said...

Tommy, the problem is that the secondary left way too many opportunities on the field.

Obviously Cutler didn't take advantage of them - but better quarterbacks will. Remember what Phillip Rivers did last week when Asanate decides to bite on a pump fake?

On two separate occasions, maybe more, Cutler had a shot at easy touchdown passes. He sucks, and didn't make them, but a Rivers, Favre, Brees, or even Romo makes them and then we're down by alot more.

It's troubling.

Unknown said...

While the secondary breakdowns were troubling, you can't take away the fact that we iced that game in an extremely uncharasteric way. This game was everything we've been ranting about the Eagles needing for a long time. A 4th quarter comeback by Donnie (that featured actual efficient passing), sticking with the run late into the game despite not having the lead, the defense getting off the field when they absolutely had to, running the ball to kill the clock... I mean this game was so many unusual things for us that it was almost hard to believe. Now if only I had faith in Andy and Donovan to give us a repeat performance of that brilliant go ahead touchdown drive, I'd really be feeling good.

Oh, and if I ever see Peanut Tillman I'm going to punch him in his freaking head.

Macs said...

What's wrong with Rocca?? I have never seen a worst punt in the NFL!

Anyway this is not a quality W but it's a W.
We need do beat WAS, get healty (especially on D) and finish strong. Let's hope we have a good Thanksgiving day but it's not likely. DAL e NY should win on thursday...

Unknown said...

I posted this on Igglesblog as Derek seemed determined to turn this win into a "The eagles aren't a very good team" game.

Yeah, if Cutler had hit on those throws the game might look different

If Charles Tillman had missed a couple of those forced fumbles it would have been a different game.

If we'd held onto some of Cutlers errant passes it would have been a different game.

If Desean had made one more move and scored on the punt return it would have been a different game.

What happened happened and one different play, even if it was a 1 yard run instead of a 3 yard run could have dramatically changed the game.

So psyched the Eagles won a close game. It wasn't perfect but a win is a win. The 10-0 Colts have won plenty of games where they played pretty badly. A win is a win and there were a lot of positives today.

Cliff said...

Guys, we're talking about mistakes in a secondary that's missing Hobbs and Mmmbop, as well as Asante in the entire 2nd half. We were also missing our best cover LB, which meant Trotter and Mays had to play a little more coverage than we'd like.

Sheldon Brown is a beast, by the way. He should've had an INT or two last night, but he deserves major kudos for playing hurt when we are so banged up at CB.

While we're on the subject, Macho was solid as the nickel CB. He was flying around the ball like a Hokie last night.

Unknown said...

Real good point, other than our D-line our defense is nicked up beyond belief.

People are ripping on that fumble by McCoy but watching that replay he does everything right. Has two arms cradling the ball to his body, it was just a great play by Tillman who got a great punch at just the right angle.

Prem Prakash said...

Winning teams find a way to pull out a win even when they are not playing their A game. Sure, it took some lucky breaks, but the Birds did what they needed to do to pull it out. Did anyone else catch the stat that teams with a -3 turnover ratio were 0-29? That stat is now 1-29. It's not the kind of thing that makes you pop the cork on the champagn bottle, but it gets us to 6-4.

orangecrush007 said...

I think they should give Sheldon a bonus. He is playing through injury and was inspiring to watch.

Prem Prakash said...

In my previous post I mentioned the 0-29 record of teams being in a -3 turnover position. I forgot about Jones' interception to end the game. Means the Eagles were -2 at the end.

@orangecrush007, I agree about Sheldon. Maybe he and Samuels should switch salaries. He could certainly teach Asante something about tackling.

Cliff said...

Yeah, when is Charles Tillman a free agent? He'd be a nice [late] Christmas gift.

Tillman is a CB that plays like a LB.

Cliff said...

And if we can peak ahead a little...

The Cowboys have: OAK, @NYG, SD, @NO.

We have: WAS, @ATL, @NYG, SF

Neither team is smooth sailing, but we have slightly more winnable games.

Other Wild Card teams...

Green Bay: @DET, BAL, @CHI, @PIT

New York Giants: @DEN, DAL, PHI, @WAS

If we're not careful, the Giants can easily sneak up on both Dallas and us. Donovan needs to keep that "must win game" speech handy.

Boyboy said...

@ Cliff

I was peeking ahead this morning too. A 3-way tie @ 10-6 sure looks possible in this division. Barring a major collapse, there is no reason that we don't make the playoffs. However, one home playoff game would be really nice, which means winning the division. To do that, we MUST beat Dallas in week 17.

Pitmanite said...

I have to say that I'm happy with this win because we accomplished a few things we haven't been able to do. Put together a sustained/long drive and finish with a TD, run the ball more so we're a more balanced offense, and come from behind to win.

Though I'm excited, my problem is that this is typical Andy Reid. We play a few atrocious games where our pass ratio is way out of whack and it looks like our season could be in trouble as we hover around .500. So Andy comes back and shows a balanced offense for 1 or 2 games where we look really good and get our hopes up. Eventually though, he can't help himself and always goes back to his pass happy offense and we get burned. It may not happen for the next few weeks because maybe we jump on teams early, but at some crucial point in the season he'll do it. It could be the game to get into the playoffs, it could be the wildcard, or heck we may make it to the nfc championship game again, but you can be certain that at some point his true colors will show and we'll lose a game by 6 points in which we'll have thrown the ball 60 times. Then I'll cry myself to sleep in the fetal position and wait to be tortured again next season.

Ben Hessel said...

Tommy-

Kinda irrelevant to the game, but:

Steve Marriucci said DeSean had very good, but not exceptional speed (or something along those lines of him being fast, but not elite with his speed)...

I never want to tell someone who knows more about football than me that they're wrong, but am I crazy or can we all call him wrong?

Cliff said...

I think the only "notable" player to have a faster 40 in the 2008 Draft was Chris Johnson.

Tommy Lawlor said...

DeSean has freakish speed. Chris Johnson might be faster. That's about it.

Announcers and analysts assume anyone who breaks big plays has great speed. Someone talked about Devin Hester's great speed last night. He isn't as fast as Johnny Knox. Devin is much more elusive, though.

DeSean is a freak. He doesn't always look fast because he runs with such ease. I've never seen anyone like him.

Unknown said...

Desean makes people look like they're going in slow motion sometimes, I'm not really sure what Mooch is talking about.