Right then, I may have previously posted about the death of the Eagles’ season. Well, that was postgame frustration coming through. After two wins in a row (yes, I know the Dolphins aren’t that good, but the Jets needed the
win to help them with their playoff situation) the Eagles look like they may be coming together, and possibly not to late. I’m not about to say I’m on board with keeping Juan Castillo as defensive coordinator, but I’m thinking the lack of training camp and the like may have actually been a problem for a defense introducing a new coordinator and line coach (speaking of which, the wide 9 still isn’t doing much for me). Honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised if Castillo went against simplifying the defense these past two weeks, and instead watched and studied what the great Jim Johnson did with the Eagles. By this I mean it seems like Castillo has been more comfortable running the blitz, and at least against the Jets and Dolphins it has definitely worked. I can only imagine going against Tony Romo it won’t be much different (especially with Romo’s talent for losing games in the 4th quarter). So without referring to stats, I’m liking what I’ve been seeing on defense, mostly that is. with two games left in the season I’m tired of giving Nnamdi Asamugha excuses. It seems nearly every game he has one or two penalties, and he hasn’t really done much to impress this season. Could it be that he was just a good player on a really average team last season? At least he’s not as bad as Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie, who I recall a few weeks ago had a player wrapped up and decided to simply let go of him. Oh well, as a whole the defense was looking rather good, and it was nice to see Casey Matthews get a few good hits in (for those of you who don’t know, he was put down a lot in the beginning of the season for not being that good, but you also have to consider he’s a rookie, had not defensive leader, and no training camp, so let’s give him a break and see how he is next season).
Let’s not forget the offense, which looked rather great. Yet again, Lesean McCoy had a superb game, and broke all sorts of records. Of course Brent Celek was running through defenders again, and continues to impress as a blocker and receiver. Though, Michael Vick needs to calm down. Yes, he had that rather awesome touchdown run, and I like seeing him do stuff like that since it shows he wants to win. However, too often he does stuff like that and risks injury, which is a problem when he is already playing with injured ribs. This was a problem on his last drive when he scrambled backwards for a ton of yards and took a shot that left him on the ground, in what looked like pain, for quite a bit of time. I understand wanting to win, but you also have to be smart about it, and if you’re hurt 3 or so games a year can you be considered an elite quarterback? I don’t think so, especially since that could mean being out for the playoffs (and with Vince Young as a backup there isn’t much hope if Vick goes down). Oh well, I won’t go into my Vick issues, especially since he didn’t have a bad game against the Jets. Overall, the offense was just as solid as the defense (come on, 45 points, that’s rather awesome).
However, what was so great is that the Eagles were able to shut up the horrible Philly media. All you would hear when turning on the radio is how bad the Eagles are and how they’d be lucky to win 1 of their last 4 games. Here we are, 2 games in and 2 wins. I’m tired of hearing how Andy Reid has to go. Really? Last year was supposed to be the rebuilding year and we expected an average season, so why not just make that this season? He’s only had 3 or 4 bad seasons, so I don’t understand all the hate. Why not put some blame on the QB? After all, he runs around so much and ended up getting hurt and out for a few weeks. Can you really blame that on a coach, especially when Vick basically said last week how he has no desire to play any other way? No matter, the point is Reid will most likely be here to stay next year.
I spoke of hope in the title, and yes there is hope. Actually, it could happen, but will be a long shot. The Eagles have a decent change of winning this week, but the Redskins may be ready to deliver an upset. However, both games are winnable, and I’m not overly worrying about them. Though, I am a bit worried about the Jets/Giants game this week. Yes, the Jets will be playing tough, but the Giants are a rather good football team, which is why I think they can sweep the Cowboys this season.
Basically, come on Jets (this week) and come on Giants (next week), pull through for the Eagles. We all know what the Eagles have to do, and I’m saying playoffs!
