Week 12 Wrap Up

 

With both the Colts and the Eagles coming off devastating losses, week 12 was important to both teams. The Colts had to prove that their loss to the Cowboys was a fluke and following the loss of Donovan McNabb the Eagles had to prove they could win without him.  As expected by many including The Eagle Report, the Colts were able to win comfortably against a confused Eagles team that appears to be in shambles. The Colts set the pace of this game almost instantly, running the ball very effectively against a weak Eagles running defense. Before halftime, the Eagles were already down 21-0 thanks to three rushing TDs by rookie RB Joseph Addai. However, the Eagles showed resiliency in this game, as Jeff Garcia led the Eagles 88 yards down the field to produce an LJ Smith TD. An Adam Vinatieri FG as time expired in the 2^nd quarter gave the Colts a commanding 24-7 lead going into halftime. In the third quarter, the Colts came out firing as Manning connected to WR Reggie Wayne, increasing the Colts lead. The Eagles still had some fight left in them though. Jeff Garcia would connect with Reggie Brown to cut the Colts’ lead to 31-14. On the next possession, Lito Sheppard would intercept a pass from Manning leading to yet another Eagles score, cutting the deficit to 10. The good feelings would be short lived. Manning and the Colts would run almost 7 minutes off the clock on the next drive that culminated in Joseph Addai’s 4^th TD of the day. Garcia would attempt to pull a rabbit out of his helmet, only to have the ball stripped away and taken into the endzone. As a last ditch effort, the Eagles put in 3^rd string QB AJ Feeley, but had poor results. The Eagles would lose this game 45-21, dropping the Birds to 5-6 on the year while the Colts improved to 10-1. The struggles have continued for Andy Reid and the Eagles and things do not get easier in the upcoming weeks.

 

Post Game Positives

 

Jeff Garcia/Brian Westbrook

 

This game was all around ugly for the Eagles, but two players on offense performed quite well for them on Sunday night: QB Jeff Garcia and RB Brian Westbrook. Garcia went 19-23 for 140 yards and 2TDs. If Garcia can play like he did today in the upcoming weeks, good things may happen for the Eagles offense. He did a fine job for them, and he wasn’t calling the plays. Now for Westbrook, he was able to take advantage of a lousy Colts running defense to pile up 124 yards and 1 TD. This gives B-West three straight 100+ yards rushing games, making him the first Eagles RB to do that since the legendary Wilbert Montgomery. These guys did a fine job tonight, and were simply beaten by a better Colts team and a bad defense.

 

Resiliency

 

We are really scraping for positives in this game, and in all honesty this is the best we could do.  Even when they were down 21-0, this team kept pushing forward and were able to make good things happen. Cutting the deficit to 10 with a good amount of time left in the 4^th quarter helped give the embattled Eagles fans something to hope for on what was otherwise a forgettable night in Indianapolis. However, with the way the Colts played tonight, there was no way the Eagles could pull this one off.

 

Post Game Negatives

 

Running defense

 

We’ll start with the most obvious. The Eagles running defense was once again dreadful. When a team faces the Colts it is really a chess match. Manning and his laser accuracy combined with the 1-2 punch of Addai-Rhodes makes the Colts’ offense a high powered machine. That said, the Eagles’ running defense was atrocious, allowing 239 yards of offense on the ground. At one point, it appeared that Rhodes and Addai were running the same play every time and the Eagles still couldn’t stop the run. Allowing 4 rushing TDs is inexcusable and horrible. Until the Eagles’ linebackers learn how to contain the running game, the Eagles’ chances of winning some games remains miniscule.

Pass rush

 

If anyone is going to stop the Colts, the way to do it is to pressure Peyton Manning and force him to make mistakes. The Eagles pass rush has been terribly inconsistent this year, and today was no exception. They registered zero sacks against the stationary Manning and the Birds’ linemen were thoroughly dominated by the Colts o-line. The one time the Eagles did get some pressure (via Trent Cole), Manning threw an interception to Lito Sheppard! Had the Eagles been able to stop the run AND get pressure on Manning like that one instance, things may have worked out differently. This is really a microcosm of what is a larger problem for the Eagles. The Eagles continue to draft linemen every single year, and it really does not produce results for them on a consistent basis for them.

 

Coaching/Playcalling

 

Andy Reid wanted to try and reverse some of the criticisms against him, especially after that atrocious game against Tennessee. Well, Andy should expect more criticism this week. Andy had stated in his Wednesday press conference that the focus of practice would be defense. To be fair, the Colts have a great offense, but how, when you’re working on defense does your team give up 45 points? Andy Reid’s team appears to be going nowhere this year and it really invites the question of whether Andy’s job may be in jeopardy. The playcalling in this game was also rather lousy. One play in particular stood out, and we’re sure everyone knows what play this would be…the ill conceived WR pass by Hank Baskett. Baskett’s throw into triple coverage was incredibly dumb and made things worse. One word for the playcalling in this game: terrible.

 

Closing Remarks

 

The outcome of this game was not really much of a surprise, but the Eagles had a little something tonight. Had the Eagles running defense been even a little better, this game would not be nearly as much of a blow out. The Eagles went into this game hoping to get some answers and instead leave with more questions. At 5-6 with an unbelievably tough line of games coming up (Carolina, New York, Dallas, Washington, Atlanta), the Eagles should probably start looking towards next year and evaluating their talent in preparation for the offseason. During last year’s struggles, the Eagles were able to realize they had some great young talent in LG Todd Herremans and C Jamaal Jackson as well as WR Reggie Brown. The Eagles should look to use the next few games to do that, since the playoffs are for the most part a pipe-dream at this point. Next week, the Eagles have a Monday night game against the Carolina Panthers, who are also an inconsistent team. The Eagles have a lot of work to do  yet again, the question is, where do they start?