U-G-L-I-E-S

I won’t pretend that I’m the biggest Eagles fan in all the land – but I have come to enjoy and root for them after being exposed for all of these years.  The fact that Andy Reid and the team were doing all of the things that I wanted to see from a good sports franchise – ignoring the whining of players, managing the cap, putting together a TEAM not a group of individuals, recruiting good, solid people.  And it was hard to argue with a team that was (for the most part) made up of guys that seemed to stress team instead of the ‘ME’ (besides the obvious exception).

So it was really hard to watch how bad they looked yesterday.  Even before Donovan McNabb went down with the career-ending injury, they were struggling on all sides.  McNabb is a great quarterback, and goes out and gives everything every week.  I have my gripes about him (his avoidance of running, despite his great legs; his lack of touch on a lot of passes), but he’s a good leader and has often come up with something to win a game when it didn’t look like there was anything to come up with.

But lately, both he and Andy Reid have looked lost.  Donovan’s touch passing has been worse, and his decision-making has been suspect, at best.  Worse, Andy Reid – the architect of 4 straight NFC Championship game appearances, and 1 Super Bowl, has seemed to lose his lustre.  Unlike a lot of other, more die-hard, fans, I don’t think Reid needs to go.  However, he does need to start looking at what he has to work with and use it more effectively.

First in a (growing) list is that fact that he seems allergic to the run.  Consider that their running back – the dynamic Brian Westbrook – is averaging a fantastic 5.2 yards per carry.  Even Corell Buckhalter, their backup, is running a respectable 3.9 ypc.  In fact, the Eagles have the second best rushing average as a team in the NFL (4.9 ypc).  But yet, when it’s crunch time – 3rd and 1, 3rd and 2, etc. – they consistently turn to the pass, often to a missed opportunity.  Why aren’t they putting that running ability to use more?

Reid’s inability to change his style to reflect the styles being used against him is concerning.  Instead of a more balanced attack to start with, they start and finish with mostly passes, even when the passing game has been keyed on and made almost ineffective.  Sure, they get their 1 long play a game, but for the rest of the game they struggle to get even first downs, let alone touchdowns.  If it weren’t for the fact that Westbrook is also a heck of a receiver, he would be the most underutilized starting RB in the league.

The evidence was shown yesterday when Donovan went down and Jeff Garcia, who hadn’t played with the starters at all this season, even in practice, had to come in and run the offense.  He didn’t do poorly, but you could tell that the lack of reps was there, and even though they were working the running game fairly effectively, they still refused to use it.  THAT is what makes for ugly games like the one shown yesterday.

Facebooktwitter

One Response to “U-G-L-I-E-S

  • I decided that football is stupid. I’m going to the Flyers game tonight, I’m hoping against hope here as it seems that Sid the Kid really seems to enjoy scoring hat tricks against the Flyers, it’s like his past time he lists on the back of his hockey card now.

Leave a Reply