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Pray For Wind?
Last Sunday, against one of the most stout run defenses in the league, the Philadelphia Eagles ran the ball on 22 of 33 first down plays. All told, they averaged 4.72 yards/carry on those runs. That number is a bit deceptive, because Brian Westbrook broke a first-down run for a 30-yard touchdown in the first quarter, but the commitment to the run was ultimately the reason they won the game.This sounds like great news. Maybe, after a decade of pass-at-all-costs offense, Andy Reid finally got it. Maybe this was a coach who finally committed himself to putting the ball in his best player's hands and letting his mammoth offensive line inflict some punishment instead of playing the entire game on their heels, pass blocking. Maybe he realized that by running the ball, the passing game opens up.
You'd think, and hope, that this was the case, but unfortunately, it doesn't sound like that's the case. After the game, Andy Reid told reporters that the extreme wind conditions were the only reason his team relied on the run. McNabb echoed his coach's sentiment by suggesting all teams in the Northeast traditionally have to rely on this type of attack later in the season. I'm not really sure why Andy Reid feels the need to make excuses for a game plan that beat possibly the best team in the NFC. I'm equally puzzled by the fact that he's basically saying it's unfortunate that his team had to run the ball so much.
Tonight, the Birds will take on the Cleveland Browns at the Linc and Andy would be well served to utilize the same game plan he made excuses for last week. Cleveland's defense is ranked 28th in the NFL against the run, they yield an average of 148.5 yards/game. Their pass defense, on the other hand, ranks a respectable 13th. Will Reid go back to his pass-at-all-costs philosophy? His post-game comments after the Giants game don't exactly make it seem like he's learned his lesson. Maybe we should all be hoping for hurricane-force wins in Philly tonight.
More after the jump.
Active Roster Questions -- Oddly absent from last week's Giants game was Reggie Brown. The former 2nd round draft pick rarely saw the field during the Cardinals game and was a healthy scratch last Sunday. Andy has been going with a 4-man wide receiver rotation and Greg Lewis has been the fourth man because he plays special teams as well, Brown does not. What does this mean for Brown's future with the team? Reggie will most likely be active on Monday night, largely due to Kevin Curtis's questionable status(although he was a full participant during Friday's workout). It's doubtful Brown has much of a future with number 5 playing quarterback in this offense.
Correll Buckhalter saw limited participation during Thursday and Friday's workouts, meaning he will most likely be active for the game tonight. This creates an interesting decision for Andy to make regarding the backs he'll have active for Monday. The most likely move will be to deactivate Lorenzo Booker, as Kyle Eckel seems more reliable on special teams as well as providing an additional option in short-yardage situations.
lost in the big win against the Giants is the fact that Mcnabb had ONE completion over 15 yards that I can recall. (to Curtis). Im not talking YAC completions...Im talking ball in air completions.
He did a good job managing the game and not making the killer mistake. I think this is a good approach for him at this point. Hes not super accurate and doesnt have a giant wide receiver to go up and get the ball when its not accurate on long throws. Play the short game and run the ball..the jets have done this with Brett Favre and it works. Stick with it...
The beauty of running the ball and working the underneath routes is that eventually you're going to get DeSean on an island with a safety or corner on him. Then you can hit the home run. It won't be there if you don't pound them into submission, though.
These three games should be about brute force for the Eagles, especially tonight's game.