Game 11 Thoughts
a hard fought battle against an awful packers team, but a win is a win and, with the rest of the nfc east losing, it keeps playoff hopes alive.
today's game wasn't exactly pretty, but i saw enough good things to be optimistic about the future.
- the jackson five was pretty good considering runyan was the only "starter" playing. green bay doesn't have an elite d-line, but it isn't chopped liver either. grady jackson can be a force in the middle when he wants to be and the kampman/gbaja-biamila end combo is decent. herremans was up and down, but handled gbaja-biamila pretty well on the few plays when i focused on him. the group blocked pretty well on power runs (like they were doing at the start of the game), but seemed to struggle more with the misdirection and delays that andy started mixing in during the game.
- ryan moats looks very exciting and much like a mini-westbrook (i hope brian takes to calling him "mini me"). he actually seems to accelerate a little quicker than westbrook, though doesn't seem as shifty. i like that andy had them out on the field together for several plays -- with ryan in the backfield and brian split out wide.
- hey all you don haters out there, you finally got what you wanted. are you happy now you freaking morons? next season can't come quickly enough for me. the team is much more entertaining with 5 at the helm.
- the d-line was just ok. freak played a pretty good game. mike patterson played pretty well and was active all game (he got the only sack of the day for the eagles defense). cole was ok, though he started running down the line on plays going away from him again. he almost got caught on the bootleg pass that vonta leach dropped early in the third. cole should have been in position to be in favre's face when he turned around, but instead got trapped running down the line. fortunately, leach dropped the ball or it would have been a pretty good gain for them. what happened to truck driver this season? he doesn't look like the same player at all. darwin walker got pushed around all game. is he hurt?
- receivers did a poor job of getting open i thought. not that mcmahon would have gotten them the ball if they did get open, but i think green bay's secondary did a pretty nice job... even al harris.
- phil perkins is convinced that andy isn't calling the plays anymore, that mornhinweg is actually calling the plays now, and that's why the team is running the ball so much. it's certainly possible, and if it's true then i'll be very happy (for the reasons i've previously written about). however, i'm not so sure of that. andy is a control freak, but he also knows that mcmahon isn't mcnabb and that they can't win with mike throwing 45 times a game. big red has shown in the past that he can and will call runs -- the birds rushed for over 2000 yards in both 2002 and 2003 -- so i think he's just playing old school football because he knows it's his best chance at winning right now and they haven't fallen behind big, early like they were doing during their bad stretch. run the ball, keep things close, make some plays at the end to win it.
- why is reno mahe on the team? i am so sick of hearing about how great his hands are. he doesn't have great hands. if he did, he wouldn't drop so many freaking passes and punts. he may have *good* hands, but *good* hands guys who give you nothing else are a dime a dozen. i reiterate: reno mahe, josh parry, and steve spach have no business being on this team. they cannot play. THEY CANNOT PLAY!
- they have to upgrade their linebackers. dhani jones is ill suited for the strong side. i'd move him over to the weak side and get a monster to play the strong side. the bullet is a nice player, but isn't an every down linebacker. i'd move him back to coverage teams full time because he can be a difference maker on kick coverage. that's his best role. simoneau is pretty productive when he's not being asked to play every down. seems like he's making a big play or two every game since he's not worn down. i'd like to see mccoy get on the field and show what he can do.
- what is with the tackling (or lack thereof)? i haven't seen an eagles defense consistently miss so many tackles in a long, long time. even dawkins is missing tackles and that is a rare sight.
- mcmahon overthrew reggie brown on two long passes (the only two passes thrown in his direction all day i think) and never gave him a chance on either pass. it was disappointing.
- i hope bubba franks is ok. he took a nasty shot from dawkins, though it seemed inadvertent as b-dawk was going after the ball.
- you can count on favre chucking it up for grabs a couple of times per game, and like old faithful, he delivered. in fact, when the game sealing pick was called back because of a questionable roughing call, favre was kind enough to give rod hood another shot just a few plays later.
- how about that catch by billy mcmullen mid-way through the fourth quarter. wow! too bad he came up a little short of the first down, but wow what a grab. that pass was a pick waiting to happen.
- it was nice to see akers back to form
- there was a fight in my section. some heifer came dressed in a packers jacket and got into a battle of words with some eagles fans (at one point she said something like "they called me a bad name"). it got physical when her jim brown lookalike boyfriend (wearing eagles garb) got involved. he took two shots flush to the face and didn't flinch. wasn't even fired up about it. impressive.
- JJ didn't blitz that much today and good thing because when they did, it's wasn't very effective.
today's game wasn't exactly pretty, but i saw enough good things to be optimistic about the future.
- the jackson five was pretty good considering runyan was the only "starter" playing. green bay doesn't have an elite d-line, but it isn't chopped liver either. grady jackson can be a force in the middle when he wants to be and the kampman/gbaja-biamila end combo is decent. herremans was up and down, but handled gbaja-biamila pretty well on the few plays when i focused on him. the group blocked pretty well on power runs (like they were doing at the start of the game), but seemed to struggle more with the misdirection and delays that andy started mixing in during the game.
- ryan moats looks very exciting and much like a mini-westbrook (i hope brian takes to calling him "mini me"). he actually seems to accelerate a little quicker than westbrook, though doesn't seem as shifty. i like that andy had them out on the field together for several plays -- with ryan in the backfield and brian split out wide.
- hey all you don haters out there, you finally got what you wanted. are you happy now you freaking morons? next season can't come quickly enough for me. the team is much more entertaining with 5 at the helm.
- the d-line was just ok. freak played a pretty good game. mike patterson played pretty well and was active all game (he got the only sack of the day for the eagles defense). cole was ok, though he started running down the line on plays going away from him again. he almost got caught on the bootleg pass that vonta leach dropped early in the third. cole should have been in position to be in favre's face when he turned around, but instead got trapped running down the line. fortunately, leach dropped the ball or it would have been a pretty good gain for them. what happened to truck driver this season? he doesn't look like the same player at all. darwin walker got pushed around all game. is he hurt?
- receivers did a poor job of getting open i thought. not that mcmahon would have gotten them the ball if they did get open, but i think green bay's secondary did a pretty nice job... even al harris.
- phil perkins is convinced that andy isn't calling the plays anymore, that mornhinweg is actually calling the plays now, and that's why the team is running the ball so much. it's certainly possible, and if it's true then i'll be very happy (for the reasons i've previously written about). however, i'm not so sure of that. andy is a control freak, but he also knows that mcmahon isn't mcnabb and that they can't win with mike throwing 45 times a game. big red has shown in the past that he can and will call runs -- the birds rushed for over 2000 yards in both 2002 and 2003 -- so i think he's just playing old school football because he knows it's his best chance at winning right now and they haven't fallen behind big, early like they were doing during their bad stretch. run the ball, keep things close, make some plays at the end to win it.
- why is reno mahe on the team? i am so sick of hearing about how great his hands are. he doesn't have great hands. if he did, he wouldn't drop so many freaking passes and punts. he may have *good* hands, but *good* hands guys who give you nothing else are a dime a dozen. i reiterate: reno mahe, josh parry, and steve spach have no business being on this team. they cannot play. THEY CANNOT PLAY!
- they have to upgrade their linebackers. dhani jones is ill suited for the strong side. i'd move him over to the weak side and get a monster to play the strong side. the bullet is a nice player, but isn't an every down linebacker. i'd move him back to coverage teams full time because he can be a difference maker on kick coverage. that's his best role. simoneau is pretty productive when he's not being asked to play every down. seems like he's making a big play or two every game since he's not worn down. i'd like to see mccoy get on the field and show what he can do.
- what is with the tackling (or lack thereof)? i haven't seen an eagles defense consistently miss so many tackles in a long, long time. even dawkins is missing tackles and that is a rare sight.
- mcmahon overthrew reggie brown on two long passes (the only two passes thrown in his direction all day i think) and never gave him a chance on either pass. it was disappointing.
- i hope bubba franks is ok. he took a nasty shot from dawkins, though it seemed inadvertent as b-dawk was going after the ball.
- you can count on favre chucking it up for grabs a couple of times per game, and like old faithful, he delivered. in fact, when the game sealing pick was called back because of a questionable roughing call, favre was kind enough to give rod hood another shot just a few plays later.
- how about that catch by billy mcmullen mid-way through the fourth quarter. wow! too bad he came up a little short of the first down, but wow what a grab. that pass was a pick waiting to happen.
- it was nice to see akers back to form
- there was a fight in my section. some heifer came dressed in a packers jacket and got into a battle of words with some eagles fans (at one point she said something like "they called me a bad name"). it got physical when her jim brown lookalike boyfriend (wearing eagles garb) got involved. he took two shots flush to the face and didn't flinch. wasn't even fired up about it. impressive.
- JJ didn't blitz that much today and good thing because when they did, it's wasn't very effective.
posted by The Mean Guy at 9:49 PM
4 Comments:
Pete, I'm back after a brief hiatus. I will be updating my slop blog as well. I missed the game, unfortunately, yesterday. It is therefore tough for me to comment on much (I did see the first 10 minutes or so). I liked what I saw out of Herremans as he looks like the future at LT. That kind of injury will make it hard for Tra to live without pain, let alone play pro football. I suspect that Shawn Andrews will move to RT next year as I thought that was Big Red's plan all along. After that it is up to Big Red, but I really think that they need to figure out why they couldn't run with the first team when healthy. Honey Buns has a hot girlfriend, by the by...they showed him in the press box eating wings and drinking Gatorade (and also an empty Corona)....I think that their DTs have pretty much sucked all year...definite off-season improvements needed there and at end, but I like Trent Cole (Kalu and Thomas are gone). I agree with moving Jones to WLB, putting Bullet on Special Teams and having him in the nickel package and trying to get a bigger LB that can cover the TE. Also agree with your Don comments. Anybody who doesn't think that we can win with him is really clueless. I just think that we all want a balanced attack and need Don to create outside the pocket and pose the threat of running. I will accept the occasional worm burner if that occurs next year. I would love Najeh Davenport as a Bird next year. I watched Parry one play yesterday and he missed his assignment totally. Spach, Reno and he are all ex-Eagles hopefully. Rod Hood did a nice job. He is nice to have on this team.
i read somewhere that herremans is a mean sob in the runyan mold, which is another reason to like him.
for one season, tony boselli was just about the best offensive lineman i ever saw. others have been as good or better, but i haven't seen many that were that good who were meaner.
Davenport is a turd and won't pass Reid's character test. If anything, TO's probably only reinforced this as far as player character is concerned. And I'm still not convinced a smallish player can't be a solid between the tackles runner a la Tiki.
It was nice to see our coverage units play as well as they did, especially kick-off. Really makes you appreciate the impact that good kickers can have.
And don't forget that 20-25% of those 2002-2003 rushing yards were from 5 (460 and 355 yards respectively) so RB-only rushing wasn't all that.
And don't forget that 20-25% of those 2002-2003 rushing yards were from 5 (460 and 355 yards respectively) so RB-only rushing wasn't all that.
you're right, you can't discount the old mcnabb's influence on those rushing numbers... sigh, i miss that old don.
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