Tuesday, September 10, 2013

Hurka Does Sports: Eagles Breakdown: Eagles 33, Redskins 27

A new NFL season is here, and the first Eagles game of the season has come and gone.  Chip Kelly made his initial impression on the NFL last night with a 33-27 win over the defending NFC East champion Washington Redskins on Monday Night Football.  While the Eagles did get the win, there is still plenty of room for improvement, as well as plenty to be happy about.  Let's break it down.


What I Liked:

The First Half Offense: I think Andy Reid got worn out just watching this team move up and down the field in the first half last night.  Chip Kelly said he was going to bring a fast-paced offense to Philadelphia, and he did just that for the first 30 minutes of football.  The Eagles ran 53 plays in the first half, outscored the Redskins 26-7 and controlled the ball for 20:20 in the first half.  No one really knew what was going to happen when this team took the field last night, but I know Eagles fans were happy when the first half ended.

Michael Vick: Was he great last night?  Not really, but he did more than enough to help the Eagles get a win.  He completed 15 of 25 passes for 203 yards and two touchdowns, and he also ran nine times for 54 yards and a touchdown.  A few of his passes sailed on him, but he looked comfortable for the most part, and even went downfield as a lead blocker on a few of LeSean McCoy's runs.  I don't really want to see him doing that much this year, though.  Also, Vick is the right choice to run this offense right now.  His ability to run the ball gives the offense an edge that they wouldn't have with Nick Foles.

LeSean McCoy: Welcome back, Shady.  After a down year in 2012, McCoy looked like what Eagles fans wanted him to be last season.  The zone blocking and read option schemes worked like a charm against the Washington defense, and McCoy became the NFL rushing leader by the end of the first half.  By the time the final gun had sounded, Shady had racked up a career best 184 yards with a touchdown on 31 carries.  The number of carries was a bit of a concern, but if Shady can stay healthy, the Eagles need to keep giving him the ball.  He's the engine of this entire offense.

DeSean Jackson: The argument with DeAngelo Hall aside, Jackson, like the rest of the Eagles offense, had a great first half.  People thought that he would be a perfect fit in Chip Kelly's offense, but no one was certain until last night.  Though he never got the deep ball, Jackson was able to catch 7 passes for 104 yards and a wide open touchdown in the first quarter.  Just like McCoy, if Jackson can stay healthy this season, the sky is the limit for what he can do in this offense.

First Half Defense: While you can make a (very legitimate) excuse that Robert Griffin III was rusty in the first half, the Eagles didn't make things easy on him at all.  By the time the first half had ended, Griffin had been intercepted once, looked completely lost when the Eagles brought pressure, and didn't get Washington past midfield once.  Alfred Morris was even worse.  The Eagles held him to a career low 45 rushing yards, and Morris fumbled his first carry of the year.  Add to that a botched pitch in the end zone late in the first quarter, and the Redskins did more to help the Eagles in the first half than they did to help their own team.  Mychal Kendricks was all over the field, picking up 10 tackles and recovering the Morris fumble.  Trent Cole answered a lot of questions on whether he could play linebacker in the 3-4 defense.  He put pressure on RGIII when asked to and provided solid defense elsewhere.  DeMeco Ryans, Fletcher Cox and Cary Williams all had sacks as well, and Williams and Brandon Boykin each had interceptions.

Cary Williams: For all the talk that Williams did in the offseason, he needed to come out last night and have a good first game.  He did just that, recording two tackles, a sack, two passes defended and an interception.  There are still questions about the Eagles secondary, but Williams at least answered a good amount of them for one night anyway.  He still has 15 more games this year to go.

The Offensive Line: It was fun to see this group in action for the first time in a real game, wasn't it?  Jason Peters and Jason Kelce looked like they hadn't missed a beat, and while Lane Johnson did get beat on a few plays, he was solid overall.  Michael Vick was only sacked three times, and LeSean McCoy took advantage of some big holes that were opened up by the line, and Vick had time to throw most of the night.  This sure beats the hell out of King Dunlap and Dallas Reynolds, doesn't it?

Donnie Jones: Oh my gosh, have I missed seeing a punter like this.  When the Eagles needed to punt, Jones was able to pin the Redskins back deep in their own territory more often than not.  Twice last night he dropped punts inside the Washington ten yard line, and he finished with a net average of 42.3 yards per punt.  Compared to where the Eagles were last year on special teams, Jones was a very welcome sight.

What I Didn't Like:

The Second Half Offense and Defense: We're just going to throw this all into one pile here.  Aside from the opening drive of the second half for Washington, which ended in an interception and a LeSean McCoy touchdown shortly after, the second half belonged to the Redskins.  The Eagles took their foot off the gas too early, and if they hadn't built up a 33-7 lead early in the third quarter, they would have lost this game.  The Redskins adjusted to the blitzing that the Eagles were doing, and RGIII started looking for the short passes, rather than the home run throws.  It worked.  The Redskins moved down the field at almost the same pace the Eagles were able to go in the first half, and it took a recovered onside kick to finally end the momentum that the Redskins had built up.  The final score was close, but it never should have reached that point.  The offense needs to do a better job down the stretch and use more clock, and the defense needs to come up with stops on drives late in the game.  That ending was way too close for my comfort, and I know a lot of Eagles fans out there that agree with me.

Sloppy Turnovers: The Eagles forced three turnovers last night, but they also had two of their own that resulted in two touchdowns for the Redskins.  Neither should have happened.  The first drive of the season ended on a "backwards pass" that was tipped and recovered by Washington for a 75 yard touchdown.  Replays made it look like the pass was going forward, but they weren't conclusive, so the play stood as called.  Regardless, Michael Vick should have been able to loft the pass over Ryan Kerrigan's arms to LeSean McCoy, rather than throwing a line drive that could be batted down.  That turnover was on Vick.

The second turnover came in the second half, and helped swing momentum directly to the Redskins.  Jason Avant was trying for a few extra yards and fumbled the football when he was hit.  Now, I love Avant, and I think he's one of the best third down receivers in the NFL for his hands and effort, but there are times when he needs to know to get down.  This was one of them, and it gave the Redskins a touchdown and put them right back in the game.  If you take those two turnovers away, the Eagles win this game easily.  That's how big of a difference those two plays made.

Chip Kelly's Challenge Abilities: It didn't make much of a difference in the end result, but Chip Kelly wasted a timeout and a challenge on a very bad call.  Zach Ertz dropped a pass inside of Washington territory, and it looked from some angles that he managed to keep it off the ground and catch the ball.  Well, that wasn't the case as soon as you looked at the play from another camera angle.  I don't know who told Chip to challenge that play, but it was a waste, and there are going to be games where those challenges and timeouts are going to be important.  If you don't have them in your back pocket, it could come back to bite you.  It didn't last night, but hopefully Chip learned his lesson.

The Breakdown:

Considering last night's game was on national TV and the focus was all about Robert Griffin III coming back from his knee injury, I would have to say that it was a successful first outing for Chip Kelly and the Eagles.  The team is 1-0, with two winnable home games coming up next week.  If they can win both of them, a 3-0 start would look very nice, but I don't want to get too far ahead right now.  There are still a lot of questions and concerns that I have about this team.

The first thing is that while this offense is fast, and Chip wants it to be even faster, I'm concerned about the conditioning of some of the players on the offense.  Jason Peters missed a few plays, and LeSean McCoy had issues with cramping during the game.  Also, I don't see there being any way that Michael Vick makes it through an entire year in this offense.  He took a lot of hits last night, and was limping by the end of the game.  All it takes is one good hit, and Nick Foles is starting.  I feel like the less Eagles fans see of Foles this year, the better our chances are at seeing a win that day.

The defense also needs to keep the pressure up.  During the second half last night, the defense started to get soft, and the Redskins took full advantage.  Yes, the offense didn't do them any favors, but it's the job of the defense to get stops and pick the offense up when they can't get things moving.  Patrick Chung was horribly out of position on the last Washington touchdown, and the overall quality level of the safeties and lack of depth at corner is a little concerning to me.  Bradley Fletcher has a concussion, and there's no guarantee that he'll be ready for Sunday's game against the Chargers.  If he can't go, the depth at the position is very thin.

With that being said, how much fun was that first half?  The Eagles moved up and down the field however they wanted to, and I've never seen a team actually take back to back ten second runoffs just to get off of the field at the end of the half like the Redskins did.  That was as close to waving a white flag as possible.  The second half got closer than any of us wanted it to, but I was actually excited to see how the game was going to end.

In 2011 or 2012, I knew what was going to happen.  If it was either of those teams playing last night, the Eagles would have lost.  RGIII would be getting even more praise, and the table would be set for the entire season.  This year, the defense showed just enough to win, the special teams looked worlds better and recovered that onside kick at the end of the game and the offense looked like they were playing a video game in the first half.  I don't know about you, but that was fun to watch, and that's the first time I can say that in about two years.  Football, at least for one night, was fun in Philadelphia again.

So it's a good start for the Eagles as they get a division win against the defending NFC East champions.  Now the focus turns to the San Diego Chargers, who blew their large lead against the Houston Texans last night.  Kickoff is at 1:00 on Sunday.  Let's see what this offense can do for an encore showing at the home opener.

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