***
I put together a review. I didn't re-watch the entire game. Silas from The Da Vinci Code stopped me. He said no one should suffer like that. There's self-inflicted pain and then there's just outright torture.
--LINK--
I didn't see a whole lot to cheer me up. Getting shut out by Dallas is about as bad as it gets.
I am happy about one thing. We can do something about this. Saturday night is the rematch. We get a chance to go steal their lunch and eat it at their house, while they watch in sheer agony. Or we could lose again, at which point I have to decide which asylum to check myself into. Does anyone know which place has the best chocolate pudding?
_
35 comments:
Kind of pointless. Whoppee, revenge against the Cowboys. Personally I'm getting pretty sick of settling for knocking divisional foes out of the playoffs as opposed to super bowls. Once again Andy and crew pissed away any realistic hope of getting to the super bowl. Shouldn't surprise me at this point, its just what Andy's teams do. 3 more years of finding some spectacular way to blow it. Yay.
Doc,
We are going to win / not win the SB based on how we play in the postseason. Missing out on the bye week and home game make things tougher, but having them was no guarantee of success.
Last year NYG, CAR, and TEN all lost at home after having byes.
The loss can actually be a good thing. It all depends on how the players respond to it.
I am actually a die-hard Cowboys' fan born and raised in Texas. I am also an NFL football fan and enjoy reading your blog and others like it to get a different perspective.
As much as I enjoyed it, yesterday was an anomaly. These two teams are very close. Saturday's game should be very close and like many Dallas/Philly games will probably hinge on a couple of plays.
I am looking forward to it.
Hey, at least we're not in Detroit!
http://www.profootballweekly.com/2010/01/04/ranking-the-defensive-coordinators
This one is interesting too...I hope he's right.
http://www.profootballweekly.com/2010/01/04/laying-in-weeds-benefits-eagles-cardinals-bengals
Tommy,
Big fan of your breakdowns. While watching this week and last week's game it seems that Westbrook's presence has hurt the run and the offense in general. Have you seen anything to support this or is it a playcalling/O-Line problem?
Fernando,
Don't come in here sweet talking us looking for a reverse jinx! Jk, and luckily I had my hot model girlfriend to console me after the loss last night...oh wait, that's right i don't have a hot model girlfriend. i did watch a little of the new Rambo after the game and watching one of the most unintentionally funny action movies of all time did help me forget about the loss.
even though i think dallas presents real match up problems, i just think it was a bad day. if you think about the first play of the game it was a bad omen when shady literally tripped over himself for a 2 yard loss.
Not buying the whole "Eagles didn't want to show all their cards" argument. Cincinnati and Arizona had zilch to play for. Winning or losing didn't matter. An Eagles win meant a 2nd seed, a first week bye, and a home 2nd week game. It was a huge game and they got beat. No way that anyone that knows anything about football can feel good about yesterday's game.
@ Fernando...
I think we'll see a different game on Saturday night. Things generally tighten up in the postseason.
Dallas fans are welcome here, but I can't guarantee a snowball or two won't come your way.
@ H ...
I wonder if Westy has thrown off the rhythm of the offense. We had a real good thing going with McCoy and Weaver. Westy is still a unique talent, but I wish we were mixing him in more instead of focusing on him.
No worries. I lived in Philly for a year. Tough place to be a Cowboys fan. So I've got thick skin.
One thing that puzzled me (right up there with the lack of blitzing in the first half), was the abandonment of the running game.
Seems like the Eagles became one dimensional earlier than they needed to.
Who knows. I'm a nervous wreck. I can't wait til Saturday.
@ Fernando
I don't buy the "Eagles didn't want to show all their cards" argument either. There was too much to play for in that game. It's all I got to cling to for hope this week though...
=)
Tommy-
I do agree that us being down early hurt us on the pass/run ratio, but aside from the drive at the end of the half, I still think we panicked and got away from it too soon. I think it's a bit misleading to make the argument that being down by 7 or 14 points in the 1st half somewhat justifies why we went pass crazy.
I went through the play chart for this game quickly, so my numbers could be off. We were down 7-0 up through the 2nd qtr. Our first drive we ran on the first 2 plays and we're in a 3rd and 2 and got sacked on 3rd down. On our next drive we threw on 8 out of 9 plays. I'm not going to kill us for this because we were moving the ball and guys were getting open. Still on our first 2 drives that's a total of 12 plays and we threw it 9 times for a pass ratio of 75%. Keep in mind we were down by 7 points.
The next time we got the ball in the 2nd qtr we were down 14. We threw it on 3 out of 4 plays. On the last play we fumbled. Again, I'm not counting the last drive because it was at the end of the half, but in the first half we had 3 possessions for a total of 16 plays. We threw the ball 12 times for a pass ratio of 75%.
This goes back to my point I made during our winning streak that Andy was eventually going to show his true colors. I think it's easier for Andy to be patient and run the ball when we clearly are the better team, and in all 6 games we won for the most part we really were the more talented team. However, in big games like this one when we're evenly matched and the opponent has some advantages, he has no patience. Andy goes into survival mode and thinks that the only way to survive is to chuck it up.
If I could make an analogy about his mindset, I'll compare it to my college wrestling days. If I was down by a point or two and time was running out in the match I was much more likely to revert to the best 1 or 2 moves I was used to hitting (my bread & butter moves). Out of desperation I'd just keep forcing the action trying to hit them repeatedly. Sometimes it worked, but even when it wasn't working I'd still keep trying them. After the match I'd think about the fact that I should've tried to mix it up more at the end bc my opponent knew what I was trying to do. Yet, in the heat of the moment, in that desperate time, I naturally went with what I knew best. This is what happens to Andy in these really big games. He panics and goes with what he knows best, which is to throw the ball even if it's not working or if we'd be more effective mixing it up. The problem is that he's not panicking with 10 minutes left in a game when we're down 10. He's panicking in the FIRST HALF WHEN WE'RE DOWN BY 7 POINTS!!! He panics when it's a tie score in the 3rd quarter of big games!!! This is what is so mind boggling to me.
Anyway, just wasted 20 minutes at work and now I'm depressed. After writing that I'm even more fearful that I'm going to end up curled up in a ball holding my blankie on saturday night crying myself to sleep.
I too am a Cowboys fan, but I am not convinced they are a better team even still.
Where was the vicious Eagles Blitz? Where was the harassment of wide receivers mixed with helmet thumping and route jumping.
If Romo has to scramble, he makes mistakes and throws interceptions.
This was not the same Eagle team that I feared on Sunday.
I too am a Cowboys fan, but I am not convinced they are a better team than the Eagles still.
Where was the vicious Eagles Blitz? Where was the harassment of wide receivers mixed with helmet thumping and route jumping.
If Romo has to scramble, he makes mistakes and throws interceptions.
This was not the same Eagle team that I feared on Sunday.
I still feel that the Eagles are watching tapes right now to pick apart the Cowboys predictable patterns.
Silas called, he's impressed with our reactions.
For some sense of how the world outside of Eagles Nation sees things, the Vegas line on Sunday's game was the Cowboys -3. The line this week has only changed by 1 point, Dallas -4.
Saturday can't get here fast enough.
Quick break from PHI/DAL.
Fiesta Bowl on tonite. Some guys I really like:
Boise
CB Kyle Wilson #1 - Can cover, hit, and return punts.
TCU
DE Jerry Hughes #98 - Plays on the left side. Good pass rusher.
LB Darry Washington #41 - Plays ILB in a 4-2-5, but projects to WLB for us. Quality 'backer.
I live relatively close to TCU and have seen them plays several times. Hughes has an impressive combination of size and speed. And is superb athlete. He was a running back in high school. He reminds me of Charles Haley.
I love Hughes because he can fly off the edge and get after the QB or play under control and keep contain. He mixes in the occasional bull rush. He's okay as a run defender. Good motor. Good athlete. Smart player.
strategy and matchups - dallas
by tommy lawlor 1/2/2010 - 2:10 pm
equals: FAIL!!
Tommy, not for nothin'...but you have a huge dallas following.
WTF?
Just kiddin'. Your dallas following seems to be a decent crowd. ;)
I'm hugely popular in Milwaukee, Sacramento, and Springfield, but I didn't know about Texas. I do find El Paso to be America's greatest border city.
Tommy and all, haven't seen much talk about Maclin's play at the end of the game where McNabb threw the ball deep and Maclin didn't even look up for the ball. He was just watching the safety to make sure he didn't get concussed. Frankly, I was unhappy the guys were even in the game at that point and I was pissed at McNabb for putting his receiver in a position to get killed given the game situation. Had Maclin done that in most other situations I would have been all over him, but, while it was quite embarassing, I thought Maclin was smart by living to fight another day. We'll need him this week.
That David Buehler is such a huge assest for them on kickoffs, having Demps wouldn't even of mattered. I found it kind of funny to see Maclin get frustrated after fielding yet another touchback. The guy seems extremely tentative when he is returning them but when he can't he gets mad. I understand he's a playmaker and playmakers want to do just that but c'mon man show some urgency when you are running with it.
Also these Cowboys fans are throwing me off here today. I'm so used to the usual "how many superbowls have you won?" comment that I don't know how to react to this. Rationality is not something I'm accustomed to from either Cowboys or Eagles fans.(outside of this sanctuary of sorts)
There is some logic to your thoughts, but...
I understand Maclin looking for the DB, but I don't like it. If you're in the game you have to play hard. Getting cautious would be fine as long as you knew 100% that it would just happen that one time, but I don't like my players doing that. You can't pick and choose when to play hard and take hits. You need to be "always on" and focus on making the play.
That play happened late in a blowout, but what if it was 4 or 5 minutes earlier. Would Maclin have done the same thing? You never know when a play can lead to an amazing comeback.
I'm not furious with Maclin or anything like that, but I better not see that kind of thing in a playoff game no matter what the score is.
My previous post was a response to Matt.
Tommy, what do you think of McNabb? Maybe his time is just up this year.
Check this out:
http://footballoutsiders.com/quick-reads/2010/week-17-quick-reads
"The Eagles can thank McNabb for having to spend Saturday night in a finer Dallas hotel. Although backup center Nick Cole didn't give him a great snap out of the shotgun, McNabb failed to handle it and gave the ball back to Dallas inside their red zone when the Eagles were already down two touchdowns. More egregious were McNabb's repeated misses of open receivers, almost always on crossing patterns and/or passes over the middle. With a dab more accuracy, the Eagles could have at least challenged the Cowboys on Sunday, if not won outright. "
FO is a site I respect for football commentary. I was thinking the same thing after the loss, but gave McNabb the benefit of the doubt. But if it really is true that we had a shot to win the game despite McNabb, perhaps we really need to reevaluate our QB for next season.
If we lose to Dallas this weekend, and a non-trivial cause for the loss is inaccuracy on the QB part, will McNabb be gone next year?
I think McNabb's future does in part hinge on Saturday. If we score less than 14 points or if he is woeful (20 for 39 or key INTs or something like that)the FO may decide that moving him is the best idea.
There are a handful of teams in need of a QB (BUF, CAR, WAS, STL, and maybe CLE). There aren't great QBs to be had in this draft class. Maybe someone is willing to overpay for a QB. Heck, maybe Childress will be sick of Favre.
We need to see McNabb's whole year and then sit back and evaluate it in a calm, rational manner. Keeping him might clearly be the smart choice. Shopping him around might prove to be wise. Hopefully he's great on Saturday and this discussion gets shelved for a bit.
i definitely would not want to see Donnie go to carolina!! if they had a good QB I think they would've been very good this year. they've got 2 studs at RB and steve smith at wideout. the last thing i want to see is 5 as their QB. don't want him in our division either. i'd hope they try to move him to an AFC team. Cleveland has plenty of picks, but they might be looking to rebuild with their new regime and may not want to give up high picks on a QB in the latter part of his career.
One of the most frustrating things about McNabb is that he is clearly a bad choice for a West Coast Offense. He simply isn't consistent or accurate enough on the crossing routes and the short passes. He has a cannon for an arm, and can throw the deep ball with the best of them, but he just doesn't have the right amount of touch and accuracy on the other stuff, imo.
I know it sounds weird, but I would *love* to see McNabb go to the Raiders next year. Al Davis would probably give us a boatload of picks for him, and McNabb has the one thing that Al just loves in a quarterback: a big arm. And ironically, I think McNabb would have a lot more success in Al's old-school offense than he would in Andy's WCO. And really, the Raiders are a pretty solid team if they could just get a competent QB. I would love to see this scenario play out primarily because it would give me A.) a chance to see a new quarterback in Andy's system and B.) a chance to see McNabb in a different system.
Most bizarre Super Bowl scenario ever for an Eagles fan in 2010: The Kevin Kolb Eagles vs. the McNabb Raiders. How incredibly bizarre would that be?
I really like McNabb and everything he has done. But there is something inside of me that really wants to see Kolb as the QB next year. But at the same time I don't want McNabb playing anywhere else because I can just see it coming back to haunt us (ie. Myron's bizarro SB game).
This is really selfish but if he can't win it here I don't want him winning it anywhere else. I feel that if he were to win one with another team it would make the Eagles look bad, as if they were holding him back. After being labeled chokers for how long and have your franchise QB of 10+ years leave only to win the SB somewhere else. Might as well douse us in gasoline and hand every other teams fan the match.
Here's something that I find curious. Last week everyone was on the Cowboy's bandwagon. I don't know if I saw even one outlet columnist picking the Eagles. The Cowboys shut us out and now suddenly everyone I read likes the Eagles in this rematch. WTF?
@Boyboy - same thing here in Dallas. Last week it was all about how the Boyz were gonna beat the Eagles. This week is all about how the Eagles are gonna come into town with their full game plan and unleash holy hell on the Cowboys. Go figure.
McNabb missed the same pass to Baskett last year in the NFCCG... he's going to miss a few of those.
He has good days, and he has bad days. His good days - in my opinion - will always be better than Kolb's... I don't think Kevin can hit the D-Jax super-bomb (he got him on a crossing pattern against N.O.). BUT, McNabb's bad days might be worse than K-square's bad days. No way to really know until we roll the dice, which I personally hope we don't do, unless we're offered an unbelievable package of picks for him.
As far as the "west coast" QB argument goes, I don't think we run a "traditional" one anyway... Andy likes hitting the deep ball.
On a completely unrelated note, Star Wars fans will enjoy this series...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxKtZmQgxrI
Hey Tommy, I don't know if you've commented much on it, but could you give some thoughts on Shanahan going to the Redskins since it seems like a done deal. Thanks!
@Nathan, will he hire his son, get rid of Jason Campbell (isn't this the last year of his contract), and draft a QB to groom like they did in Denver with Cutler?
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