By Rich Tandler
The nature of the NFL is that the discussion of this Sunday’s game will center on the Eagles. It will be all about their losing and their mistakes and Andy Reid’s job security.
Philly suffered their prototypical loss against the Bills, as they rolled up up 489 yards of offense but made enough mistakes on both sides of the ball to lose. Peter King of Sports Illustrated just tweeted that “the Eagles are sloppy and dumb.”
The question is, can they fix sloppy and dumb in a week? Can Reid get his wide receivers to secure the ball when they are running down the field? Can he break Michael Vick of his propensity to pass with pressure in his face, leading to some of his interceptions?
Vick, by the way, threw six interceptions in 12 games last year. So far in 2011 he has thrown seven. His apologists will note that some of them are not his fault and clearly Vick could do nothing about some of his picks like the one near the end of the game, the one that Jason Avant had in his hands. But when you are on a pace to throw over 20 interceptions in a season as Vick is, at some point the blame has to fall on the guy pulling the trigger.
There are issues with the Eagles that are not related to playing dumb football. They are getting gashed for 140 yards per game rushing and that is not something that is going to be fixed immediately. Antonio Dixon, the team’s best run stopping defensive lineman, is out for the season. The Eagles are not going to get NFL-caliber linebackers between now and Sunday. You have to think that Kyle Shanahan is planning a heavy workload for Ryan Torain, Tim Hightower, and Roy Helu on Sunday.
All that said, this is a dangerous game for the Redskins. The Eagles still have many of the same players that hung 59 points on Washington at FedEx Field last November. But talent alone doesn’t get it done in the NFL and Reid and the rest of the coaches will be burning the midnight oil trying to find answers.
Are the Seahawks better than the Giants? It doesn't matter; they won. This past Sunday for 3 hours they were better. The Eagles are at least on paper better than the Seahawks, but that doesn't matter either. This game against the 'Skins has the makings of a pasting by the Eagles, I hate to say. After watching NFL seasons year after year, it just has that feeling... decent Redskins team but not great, taking on a pissed off opponent, an opponent with some solid weapons. I hate the bye week and I think it hurts teams like the Redskins who have a little but not a lot of momentum. Doesn't matter what the Eagles are.... good, bad, sloppy... all they have to be is the Seahawks for 3 hours. Yeah, it's just a gut feeling they'll do it, but that's my take.
Posted by: Reid Harrison | Monday, October 10, 2011 at 12:30 PM
People need to wake up and realize this is not the dream team it was hyped to be. The defensive front seven are inconsistent and are, as a group, mediocre. Washington needs to run the ball and control the clock. I would give the Eagles a dose of Hightower, Torain and Helu all day long.
When the Redskins are on defense they need to do what the Bills did with pressuring Vick and getting him to take those big risks. Their offensive line is leaky and ripe for sack city. They can't run the ball so I would go with a nickel defense that will put more speed on the field. It's a great week to get Buchanon back in the fold.
Finally, the Eagles are a team with a lot of missed expectations on their backs. Smacking them hard early will get hose shoulders slumping on the sidelines. Conversely, if the Redskins let them get a big play early, it might give them something positive that they desperately need to feed on.
Posted by: TroyLok | Monday, October 10, 2011 at 02:25 PM