The Eagles: Week 7

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I'm back. After a midterm/assignment week that was about as much fun as a shower at Shawshank, I am back and ready to talk some Philadelphia Eagles football!! (the exclamation marks are there because when are you not excited to say FOOTBALL!!) So what exactly have the Eagles done in my 3 week writing absence? They've gone 1-2 in that time while playing some insanely sloppy (think Deena and Snooki) football in their two losses while in their one win, which happened last weekend, Philly managed to make Rex Grossman look like... well Rex Grossman. This ushered in the John Beck era in Washington (have fun with that Redskins fans) and left me strangely optimistic (we beat the divisional champs at home, I don't care that their starting QB was so bad that fans started chanting for his backup who hadn't played a game since 2007. I can be excited, the season's been tough so far.). The Eagles of course had a bye weekend this week so on the one Sunday in the past 3 weeks that I had to relax and enjoy the NFL, my favourite team wasn't on the field (further proving I have angered the scheduling gods in some way).

If you're an Eagles fan i think you have to be cautiously excited for the rest of the season. Even with our record being a terrible 2-4, we are a couple of bounces here and there from winning at least 2 more of those games. In just the last 2 losses, the first being against the Niners (This loss makes way more sense 3 weeks later. San Francisco is very good, they have a great defense, great special teams, a sneaky good offense and a coach who prides himself in giving overzealous somewhat douchey but always entertaining post-game handshakes), Philadelphia could have won if rookie kicker Alex Henery had made one of his two very make-able fourth quarter field goals. The second loss against the Bills showed how unlucky Philly has been in the early part of the season. I'm pretty sure one of Vick's interceptions in that game hit every single person in Ralph Wilson stadium before falling into the hands of a Buffalo Bills player (just about).

Week 2: Eagles

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Why am I posting this early Thursday morning? A full 3 days after the game itself? The same reason i ripped off my retro Reggie White jersey in frustration sometime Sunday night after the Philadelphia Eagles blew a practically won road game against the Atlanta Falcons 35-31 (might have something to do with the fact that my work ethic has been Eddy Curry-like this week). Having to remember aspects of this game was about as appealing as apologizing to Floyd Mayweather (It was a sucker punch. Definitely legal and arguably deserved but still a sucker punch). I haven't watched an Eagles game in a while where so many things go wrong at inopportune times giving the opponent a chance to stay in the game. A prime example of this was the fumble the Eagles had right before the half on the Atlanta four yard line that was returned for 64 yards and led to a Falcons touchdown. A 14-point swing on a play where the offensive line for the Eagles seemingly forgot to block one of the Falcons' defenders.

The second half did not start off better as Vick did his patented "I'm getting blitzed so instead of throwing the ball out of bounds I'll just throw it into an area with a 2% chance of a completion" that led to another Falcons TD on the next possession giving them a 21-10 lead. Even at this point my optimism was high as I felt that we had played a better game then them to that point. I ended up being right as Philly scored two touchdowns on their two next possessions taking a 24-21 lead. During this stretch Asante Samuel had a terrific interception and the defense looked great (every time a ball is thrown in the direction of Asomugha, I don't expect the other team to make a play. It's a great feeling). As we were marching down the field into Atlanta territory for our third straight drive, Vick got hit and somehow happened to collide into Todd Herremans' (his own lineman) shoulder with his head sidelining him for the rest of the game with a concussion. It was at this point that Mike Kafka got inserted into the game causing all Eagles fans including myself to think "who the fuck is Mike Kafka?"(here are some other thoughts that all Philly fans had during the game: Can someone tell Tony Gonzalez it's not fucking 2004 anymore?, Dunta Robinson is a fucking (insert any swear word you like), Is Reid trying to set the record for most end around/reverse plays that don't work in one game? Do we even have linebackers?).

Kafka ended up doing a great job as a replacement and the Eagles ended up scoring off a LaSean McCoy run. This is the point where I feared for the worst because it had not been a good sports day up to this point (Earlier in the day, Chelsea had lost to Man U 3-1 after outplaying them for 90 minutes, the game featured Fernando Torres missing a scoring chance that Professor X would have put away.) and I wasn't feeling lucky. The Falcons started running a no-huddle offense and scored two touchdowns on a defense that wasn't able to get its 3 fantastic cornerbacks on the field (Rodgers-Cromartie got practically no playing time this game) at the same time because of the formation Atlanta was calling plays from. They started using their tight ends more once they realized the Eagles' linebackers are average at best. Even with all of this Philadelphia was on the Atlanta 21 with 2 minutes left when Jeremy Maclin (who up to that point had played a very good game) dropped a pass on 4th and 3.

Tough defeat for Philadelphia and next week won't get any easier when they take on the Giants at home. With Michael Vick I think this would be an easy win over New York since their defense is banged up past recognition. With Kafka it will not be an easy game and a team that could have easily started 3-0 might end next Sunday at 1-2. Not the best week for Philadelphia Eagles fans but we still have 15 weeks to go.

Until next time,

Luka Milanovic
@Luka_M91 on twitter