EAGLES Are 0 For California (EAGLES NOV 15)

Yes that is the State of California calling the

E - A – G – L - E – S a L – OOO – SER!

Okay so it is hard, no impossible to beat the lowness of losing to and in Oakland, but this Chargers loss was hard to swallow. I don’t care what anyone says Norv Turner is a joke of a coach and his team is not that good.

Okay let me state right out of the gate that the score is not indicative of the game and how it played out. And While I do not want to poo poo the monster 450 yard passing from Donovan McNabb the irony it was too little and too late! Here is why.

First of all the Chargers busted out of the gate to a 7 to 0 1st quarter lead.
They led at halftime 14 to 6.
Rivers was 20 for 25 for 231 quality yards: Meaning it is not a gaudy number but he threw for 2 TD’s and he managed a good game. they only ran 55 plays.
San Diego ran 55 plays to Philadelphia’s 71 plays. What does this tell you? Efficiency and balance is what it tells you.
Chargers ran for 119 yards on 28 carries. LaDanian “Washed up” Tomlinson had 96 yrads and 2 TD’s on 24 carries.
The Chargers put up another 24 in the 3rd quarter for a 28 to 9 lead.
San Diego went into prevent mode.

With a staggering 9 points on tremendous field goal drives the Eagles came to life somewhat in the 4th. On the day the Eagles were 2 for 5 in the Red Zone but they stalled at the goal line also!

McNabb went 35 for 55 and 450 yards. Not to diminish this but 55 attempts? And some of this was what is called garbage time as the game was never, ever in doubt.
The Eagles ran the ball a whopping 13 times. For a putrid and pathetic 29 yards. Westbrook had 28 of them.
Look I get the big play threat and the fact that by the 3rd quarter you were drowning. But Andy gave up on the run when he got on the plane to head to San Diego.
Westbrook some how got another concussion. He’s done in my opinion.
The Eagles had 9 penalties for 70 yards compared 3 for 31 yards for San Diego.
McNabb threw a pick.
Eagles had 26 first downs on 71 plays, the Chargers had 22 first downs on 55 plays!

Philadelphia Receiving
	REC	YDS	AVG	TD	LG	TGTS
J. Avant	8	156	19.5	0	58	9
D. Jackson	8	91	11.4	0	22	16
J. Maclin	6	76	12.7	1	28	8
B. Celek	6	47	7.8	1	17	11
R. Brown	2	36	18.0	0	19	5
B. Westbrook	2	26	13.0	0	17	3
L. McCoy	3	18	6.0	0	8	3
L. Weaver	0	0	0.0	0	0	1
Team	35	450	12.9	2	58	56

Kudos to the receivers on a big day regardless of how it was set up. Caution, if you throw 55 times you better have big passing and receiving numbers. By accident you should have over 300 yards.

You know one thing you used to be able to say about Andy Reid was his preparation was reliable. But his blatant and obvious reluctance and perceived loathing of running the football has become a gauge for opposing defenses. Teams are not stacking the line. They are using 4 or 5 guys to rush McNabb and using 6 DB’s in coverage. So except for the big strikes the Eagles are not going to score on accumulated passing yardage alone.

This is why you must run! You must make the defense play the run so it will open up meaningful passing stats. Defenses will give you underneath all day and then clamp down when you get close. So except for the occasional time when Jackson or Maclin breaks the zone or gets deep, you’re not getting in the end zone.

Once again the world wants to know why are we still sending Vick out there to pretend play QB? No disrepect to Vick either. But he is not committed to this nor is Andy Reid. I’m sure defenses are sweating bullets preparing for a guy to come off the bench and run the same plays you are already running. I mean at least try something different. Let Vick air it out or something.

This O-Line is a disaster right now.

And the defensive injuries are killing the defense. They reported that Chris Gocong was the 4th or 5th LB to line up in the middle! That is not good! The LB’s are where the defense is getting torched the most.