Sluggish Start, Strong Finish (Eagles Dec 7)

December 7, 2009   ·   philliesmania   ·   Jump to comments

 

Eagles trounce Atlanta 34 to 7!

 

Frankly,however, the score is a little misleading. Don’t get me wrong the Eagles were the better team on the afternoon. But they did not out play the Falcons as much as the score would indicate. In fact I think the injuries the Falcons had coming into the game were an impact. The loss of QB Matt Ryan was huge as the play of Chris Redman illustrated.

 

The Eagles defense was too much for Redman and the patchwork backfield without RB Michael Turner. The Falcons offensive effort was held meaningless.

 

• Redman was 23 for 44 and 235 yards. A horrific 5.3 yards per attempt. Throw in the 2 INT’s and you got the story. The man telescopes his throws. Every one watching can identify his target it is so obvious.

• Falcons had 22 carries for 61 yards.

 

If it weren’t for the Eagles penalties the Falcons would not have had nearly as many yards as the feeble total they had. They also got 6 first downs by way of Eagles penalties. This game was over when it started.

 

The problem is the Eagles offense sputtered in the first half and kept shooting themselves in the Red Zone. In the first had they made 4 trips in the Red Zone and got 1 TD. Yes they got 2 field goals but that was anti climatic when you consider how easily they moved down field. Oh and they missed a field goal.

 

Stat wise the QB’s looked solid.

Philadelphia Passing
	C/ATT	YDS	AVG	TD	INT	RATING
D. McNabb	14/25	238	9.5	1	0	101.8
M. Vick	2/2	48	24.0	1	0	158.3
Team	16/27	277	10.3	2	0

 

My only problem with McNabb was the Red Zone offense. But that was not entirely on him. All day the Eagles got a little overkill with the middle of the field. You need to use the sidelines at times just to keep defenses on their toes. The 26 rushing attempts were effective and strange at the same time.

Philadelphia Rushing
	CAR	YDS	AVG	TD	LG
L. Weaver	5	37	7.4	0	17
E. Buckley	8	33	4.1	0	9
M. Vick	4	17	4.3	1	5
D. McNabb	2	17	8.5	0	16
L. McCoy	6	2	0.3	0	4
R. Brown	1	-3	-3.0	0	0
Team	26	103	4.0	1	17

 

I mean you got some production so I won’t complain. And you ran to keep the ball in the 4th quarter. And it was nice to see Leonard Weaver get some carries. But your workhorse got 6 carries? Shady McCoy needs little more work than that. Of course the Buckley carries was part of a give the starters a rest philosophy, so they may have been McCoy’s carries in a normal situation.

 

Highlights:

• The “Not so Wildcat” finally paid a games worth of dividends as Vick ran and scored his first TD of the year. He also threw nice ball to Reggie Brown in the “Wildcat” mode.

• Vick also had a nice TD pass to Brent Celek where he coasted left out of the pocket, in which he is left handed, and then turned and threw a solid ball back across the field for the TD strike. I don’t think that was officially in the “Not so Wildcat” formation.

• Dream Weaver had a nice TD catch and an outstanding 1 hand grab for a big 46 yard pass play. He also had a couple real nice rushing plays.

• Reggie Brown actually got into the action some.

• Jeremy Maclin made a few quality plays. One catch across the middle he turned on the jets for a nice gain.

• Jason Avant continues to come up big.

• Trent Cole was a beast all day.

• Sheldon “Hammy” Brown made a great PICK 6 play in the second half to bust the game open.

• I thought Macho Harris played very well.

• Asante Samuel usually known for his ball hawking, put a couple nice hits on some Falcons. Notably one on WR Roddy White.

• It was nice to see Andy Reid smiling and having fun. He really wanted Vick to have a day like Sunday. Actually he was going to let Vick finish the game at QB but Vick hurt his right wrist or thumb. Which he is left handed, so I wasn’t sure why he couldn’t finish.

 

Oh well the win was huge coupled with the Dallas loss to the NY Giants. That puts the Eagles back in the Division drivers seat tied with the Cowgirls!