A Closer Look At the Browns Game

Andy Reid gushed about his team's defensive effort against the Browns earlier this week, particularly the play of Stewart Bradley and Asante Samuel. In his 16th game playing MLB ro Jim Johnson, Bradley led the team with six solo tackles, and he continues to grow into the ever-important role in Johnson's scheme. Two promising signs that he is developing into an all-around linebacker were his impressive tackle of Jamal Lewis on a screen pass and his interception late in the fourth. Two potentially game-changing plays.

While the Eagles secondary seemingly had no answer for Braylon Edwards (5 receptions for 102 yards) they still controlled the game for most of the evening. Much of Edwards' success had to do with the scheme deployed by Jim Johnson. Johnson routinely substituted Quintin Demps for Asante Samuel at the corner to shore up the run defense in the Eagles base defensive package (also to combat the anticipated wildcat formation with Cribbs at qb). This is an interesting move that should produce dividends against the run-oriented Redskins.

Offensively, the Eagles moved the ball at will on a porous Cleveland defense. Yet, two turnovers in the red zone do provide some cause for concern. Coach Reid is the usual scapegoat in these situations; however, the play calls provided opportunities for Hank Baskett to take advantage of his size down near the end zone. Execution was the culprit in both situations, poor passes resulted in both interceptions. McNabb's worst throw of the night was the under thrown fade to Baskett; however, Hank needs to make an attempt to play defense. The interception of the wildcat/Tebow jump pass was simply on DeSean. After the game he admitted that every time the play was run in practice, the instructions were to put the ball up so that Hank could take advantage of his size.