Week 4: Wrap Up

Prior to Monday’s game of the Packers at the Eagles, the Eagles were 0-4 in their last few Monday Night Football contests dating back to 2004. There was a raucous and unbelievable crowd at the Linc that night anxious to see the Eagles notch their first home win of the year and snap the streak. The Eagles would not disappoint as they won 31-9. However the game was closer than the final score indicates. The game began with an unexpected twist: Brian Westbrook and Ahman Green, the feature backs for both teams, would not dress. As a result, both teams had trouble getting their offenses going in the first half and couldn’t quite replace the talent Westbrook and Green bring to the table. The backups, Correll Buckhalter and Vernand Morency, each made critical fumbles in the first half, including muffed handoffs. Green Bay ended up scoring only on field goals, and Donovan McNabb had the Eagles’ two rushing touchdowns. Things looked bleak for the Birds after the first half: they trailed 9-7 and were booed off the field after a botched fake field goal. McNabb underthrew a lot of balls in the first half and ended up being the Eagles’ best rusher of the night. Although the Eagles regained the lead 10-9 in the third, it wasn’t until the Packers missed a long field goal and gave the Eagles great field position that the tide really began to turn. McNabb connected with Greg Lewis for the first of two long touchdowns on the ensuing drive, and after that rookie lineman Lajaun Ramsey intercepted a ball that went out of the hands of Morency to set up another TD to Lewis; in fact, the Eagles scored on their first four possessions of the second half. From there, the game was sealed and the Eagles were on their way to 3-1.

Post Game Positives

Donovan McNabb
After a frustrating first half where he had trouble finding open men and Buckhalter seemed unreliable, McNabb realized that he had to take matters into his own hands. Though he does not like to run the ball, Donovan turned two scrambles into big yardage on third down to sustain the drive that led to Akers’ field goal and scored the final dagger by scampering for 15 yards and just clearing the pylon in the fourth. McNabb also corrected his erratic throws and made some beautiful passes deep downfield to help run up the score.  McNabb did such a great job that Andy Reid rewarded him by resting him in the final 6 minutes, giving backup Jeff Garcia some reps. Not only did McNabb have a great game, he also showed that he is a classy guy by giving one of his TD balls to a young fan and proved once again to anyone who may feel otherwise that he is the leader of this team and the guys around him feel the same way.

 Wide Receivers
The Eagles have seen better individual performances from their receivers this year; in fact, this was the first week the Eagles didn’t have a 100-yard receiver. However, the entire corps has never looked stronger. McNabb didn’t play favorites: Four wideouts had at least 20 yards and Reggie Brown’s 3 catches were a team-high. Even more impressive, each wide receiver had a catch of 20 yards or more. One reason for their success was their ability to pick on and burn Packers CB Ahmad Carroll, who looked as slow as molasses tonight. For example, Lewis’s first TD, he beat Carroll in one-on-one coverage. On the drive that set up McNabb’s second TD run, Brown was able to pick up some extra yards after Carroll thought Brown had gone down. When Stallworth and Brown left the game with injuries, Lewis and Hank Baskett stepped in and filled their shoes admirably. Before this game, G-Lew only had 1 regular season TD reception and in this game he had two. Those great Eagles teams prior to 2005 were good because people always stepped up when someone else went down and the WRs did that tonight.

 Secondary

We are happy to finally put the secondary in the positive column. Michael Lewis, Sheldon Brown, and Sean Considine decided to join Brian Dawkins’ hard-hitting act this week. They displayed very tight coverage on the Green Bay receivers and deflected 1/4 of Favre’s pass attempts. Lewis came back after being helped off the field in the second quarter to come up with a big fourth-quarter interception. The secondary should get a big boost in week 5 as Lito Sheppard is expected to be returning.

 

Second Half

In previous weeks, the Eagles have done most of their scoring in the first half (outscoring opponents 55-20) and then Andy Reid has gone to a more conservative game plan, allowing opponents to get back in the game by beating the Birds in the second half. Not so tonight, as the Eagles showed some killer instinct after a big momentum shift in the third quarter and did most of their scoring in the second half. Reid made sure he put his old team away, and was not afraid to call for the deep throws to Lewis. The defense didn’t loosen up either, as shown by the big goal-line stand that prevented Green Bay from scoring in the otherwise meaningless final minute. 

 

Post Game Negatives

Running Backs
The Eagles were hurting here without Westbrook. Correll Buckhalter cost the Eagles at least 10 points early on by fumbling twice inside the Packer 5. Worse, Buckhalter was not a reliable source of yardage, and by the end of the second half the Eagles were reduced to lots of short passing. Without a running game, the Packers went after McNabb more aggressively until Ryan Moats stepped in and gave the Eagles some semblance of balance. However, McNabb (47 yards) was just three yards away from being the Eagles’ leading rusher tonight, which should never happen if the running backs do their job.  Fumbling within the opponent’s 5 yard line—twice—is inexcusable. Buckhalter took responsibility for his mistakes, which is good, but he should not have let that happen. 

Defensive Line
The unit that includes the league sacks leader failed to put pressure on Favre or sack him even once. The Green Bay O-Line was better than we thought they would be, but they looked like a brick wall tonight. Favre rarely had to leave the pocket and always had loads of time to throw. We’re not sure what happened with the D-Line tonight, but they’ll need all the pressure they can get against an explosive Dallas offense. 

Joselio Hanson
Hanson spent most of the night matched up against Packers rookie Greg Jennings, who caught 5 balls for 86 yards. Hanson could not keep up with Jennings and made up for it with lots of downfield contact. He had one pass interference call declined because Jennings made the catch anyway, and got lucky on a non-call that would have given the Packers a first down but instead they were forced to kick a field goal. Hanson also took a called illegal contact penalty that wiped out an interception in the third quarter and dropped an interception at one point. His play has been shaky over the past few weeks and Hanson has got to start making plays in the absence of the starters. 

Closing Remarks

This week, the Eagles bounced back against a decent opponent, something they had not done all year. The injury report continues to grow, and it remains to be seen how the Eagles will adjust future game plans. The Eagles did a fantastic job of capitalizing on the Packers’ mistakes to take control of the game. This game gives the Eagles great momentum going into next week’s much-anticipated contest with the hated Dallas Cowboys and their receiver who shall not be named. The Eagles said before the game they were going to take it one game at a time and they did just that against Green Bay. Hopefully the injuries sustained in this game in addition to the existing injuries will subside in what is a short week of preparation for the Birds as we look ahead. In closing, this was a great win for the Eagles and their fans.