Game 3 Thoughts

well, a win is a win and i'll take it, but all is not well in eagles land today. there are significant performance and injury issues on the team right now that don't seem particularly easy to resolve.

- mcnabb looked awful for large stretches of the game. his limited mobility and flexibility made him a sitting duck back there, and you could tell that he was in a lot of pain. the eagles are worried that he has a sports hernia, which is not a good thing -- a sports hernia pretty much ended mikael renberg's career (yes, he did play for several seasons after the sports hernia, but was never the same player again). maybe the surgical techniques have improved since then -- dirk johnson had one in the offseason and he's back punting already -- but dirk doesn't have to avoid michael strahan or dwight freeney. i am *very* concerned about this -- at least 10x more concerned than about the kicking situation.

- TO took a couple of licks and held onto the ball, but i thought he did a lot of loafing frankly. early in the game (first series i think?) on the reverse pitch to greg lewis, i thought TO did an ole job on the block against a guy who ultimately made the stop 3 yards short.

- LJ is a fumble waiting to happen. he protects the ball worse than any player i can remember. he juts his elbow out every time he tries to make an athletic move or is about to be hit. it exposes the ball to anyone coming from the backside. i find myself screaming "don't fumble" every time he makes a catch.

- the defense got no pressure on collins all game. did our d-line play yesterday? did robert gallery eat jevon kearse? seems like they did a lot of double-teaming inside knowing that their tackles could handle our ends. even their blitz pickups were terrific. i can't remember a single guy getting a free run on collins. mike patterson, who got the start due to darwin walker's injury, was effective early and then disappeared when they started to pay more attention to him. great job on run defense by the d-line though, oakland was not getting any push at all.

- not sure what they're going to do about akers. can you afford to carry two kickers for a large portion of the season? according to all accounts, akers was booming them from 55-60 yards in practice during the week and up to 5 minutes before the game. seems like there wasn't a way anyone could have predicted what happened. then again, is jeremy thornburg (who was inactive anyway) worth the risk of what happened? personally, i'd cut parry but either one of them can go IMO.

- o-line did a nice enough job considering mcnabb was so immobile... except for artis. is artis fighting some sort of injury? artis didn't play well and even allowed that fat f*ck sapp to make a few plays.

- for most of the first half, the offense looked like they were playing in mud. except for westbrook, no one seemed to have their usual quickness or "burst". even TO looked slow (maybe it was his groin injury rather than loafing, but he did look slow).

- westbrook played great and was the difference in the game. i think it's about time to pay the man...

- charles woodson played a great game. sheldon and lito are good, but woodson is a difference maker. he was very physical all game and never seemed to be more than a step away from any receiver he covered.

- josh parry cannot play.

- i think trent cole has potential, but he doesn't know how to play right now and JJ doens't trust him. a couple of plays to highlight: a) game 1 against the falcons vick bootlegs left and cole stays home to get in front of him. vick gives him a pump fake and cole jumps. next thing you know vick is 10 yards downfield. cole hardly sees the field again. b) this game, the longest run of the day by jordan was cole's fault. play is a sweep right so cole takes off straight down the line. jordan cuts back and the whole left side is open so he runs for 12. cole hardly sees the field again.