Wrap-Up
The Birds are flying back
to the nest with a high-quality win in week one. After a shaky start, the
Eagles were able to settle down and find their way to an impressive 24-10 win
over the Houston Texans. Season openers like today’s
have been hard to come by in the Andy Reid era; the Eagles are only 3-5 on
kickoff weekend since 1999. The usual suspects led the attack: Donovan McNabb
passed for 314 yards and three touchdowns, while Brian Westbrook had 197 yards
of total offense and caught a touchdown pass. However, the player of the
day was newcomer Donte Stallworth. McNabb
and Stallworth looked more like Manning and Harrison
today. Stallworth amassed 141 yards and a touchdown
on just six receptions. It looks as though Stallworth
will be the go-to receiver, and any questions about the receiving game are on
hold… for now. The real test will be next week against a stronger New York
Giants defense. This game may have been a strong win over a weak opponent,
but we’ll take it. If the Eagles are to be a playoff caliber team, these
are the games they should be winning and winning with authority and we
certainly saw that today.
Post
Game Positives
·
Team Health
The biggest
difference between this year and last year is the team’s health. Westbrook
quickly quieted any doubters with his performance. McNabb and Buckhalter also look to be in top shape after missing
significant time last year. It should be interesting to see how the health of
the team plays out for the rest of the season. Should the Birds stay healthy,
they will have no problem challenging for the NFC East title.
·
Defense
Pressure,
pressure, pressure… The Eagles were able to pressure and sack David Carr 5
times. The defensive line is back and loaded with depth. The package of
Darren Howard and Trent Cole’s speed on the outside accounted for two sacks in
today’s win. In addition to containing Carr, the defense also came up big
against
·
Running Game
The run game was
critical to today’s success. It looks like Reid will give the ground game a
chance this year with the offensive line and run game are healthy and ready to
go. Success from Westbrook and Buckhalter allowed the
Eagles to go to play action, a rarity last year. The biggest play of the game
was a play action pass to a wide open Donte Stallworth. The Eagles owe the play to a reliable
offensive line and the balanced attack of Westbrook and Buckhalter.
·
Receivers
What many thought
was the Achilles’ heel of this team may actually be the team’s strength.
The receivers all did a fantastic job, making it easy for McNabb to spread the
ball around. There were few dropped balls, and they were able to get open very
easily. Let’s hope they continue to mature as a productive group under McNabb’s
tutelage. McNabb to Stallworth looks so
natural; it will be interesting to see what more these two can do as Donte picks up more of the play book. Perhaps his success
will open the offense up and bring back flashes of two years ago.
Post
Game Concerns & Worries
·
Linebackers
There is still a big question mark here in regards to whether Matt McCoy and Dhani Jones are enough on the outside. Matt McCoy,
according to one report last year on CBS sportsline
went as far as to call him a “draft day bust,” even though he hadn’t played
that much. Andy and the staff have not given up on McCoy though, as they played
him a lot during the pre-season to get him ready. He led the team with 8
tackles today and looked pretty solid and comfortable out there. Dhani Jones is still looking to recover from a forgettable
2005 season and there are still a lot of question marks regarding his ability
to play the SAM (Strongside Linebacker) position
adequately. Despite his good game, McCoy has a lot of work to do. The Texans
were an easy opponent for him to get his bearings, but he will have his hands
full next week trying to contain Tiki Barber. In
order to do this, McCoy will have to
mature and cut back on his mistakes.
· Secondary
Lito Sheppard was shown on TV being worked on by a
trainer. The FOX announcers never mentioned he was hurt, but he did not play
the rest of the game. What is the status of Lito’s
injury?
Michael Lewis is a bit of an enigma for the Eagles right now. The Eagles
took a chance when they drafted him out of
While we’re on the topic of the secondary, the Defensive Backs
really looked bad in certain parts of the game. On the Texans’ opening drive,
Eric Moulds was given a wide open lane to run through for an easy 6 points
while Michael Lewis made an awful attempt at covering. A little later in the
game on the drive that would end up leading to a Texans FG, Sheldon Brown was
beaten on the sideline by a taller Andre Johnson. The Eagles DBs have always been small but they have still gotten the
job done by making plays while keeping the opposing offense from making big
plays. Jim Johnson has always said the Eagles have a “bend but don’t break”
defense, such was the case today. However, the Eagles will be facing a few teams this
year with very potent offenses and those DBs need to
make plays and not get beaten so easily.
·
Special Teams
Even though the special teams looked
pretty solid today with Akers nailing a FG and with the kicking coverage teams
doing a great job wrapping up the ball carrier, there are still some problem
areas. The first is that we need a better kick-return man, period.
Bruce Perry is slow and doesn’t do a very good job on the returns. While we are
on the topic of kick returns, why in the world was Brian Westbrook being used
on the punt returns? As Brian Westbrook showed today, Donovan McNabb was not
kidding when he referred to Westbrook as the ultimate weapon. When healthy,
Westbrook adds a whole other dimension to the Eagles offense. However, when
you have a guy like Westbrook who gets hurt so much, why risk injury by placing
him on punt returns? Hopefully Reno Mahe gets
healthy soon or the Andy Reid picks someone else for punt returns in the
future. Finally, Ryan Moats looked awesome on the kick coverage getting down
field very quickly. Moats has the effective breakaway
speed to be a great return man assuming he can hold on to the ball. Andy
should consider using Moats on more special teams
plays.