The 2007 Philadelphia Eagles Season:
Some Highs, Some Lows, and Few Mediums
By the RipperEagle
If you bought this, you are willing to buy anything apparently.
The team seemed to jump over a lot of obstacles this season (most of which were put in front of them by their own misjudgments) as the team rolled up to an 8-8 season, being knocked out of playoff contention back in week 15 of the season despite beating the much hated Dallas Cowboys. If the offense couldn’t get the engine revving, the special teams’ unit would make a costly mistake, and if that didn’t happen, then the defense would allow an unusually long drive for a touchdown late in the game and the team would lose. And while we would like to point out certain players (and I will too during the course of this overview) when you go back and look at everything as a whole, EVERYONE added to the unraveling of the team and the ups and downs of the season. When the team was up, everything was good (see the big win over Detroit, the win in Minnesota shutting down Adrian Peterson, and the back-to-back wins for the first time in the year at Washington and over Miami) but there were as many bad things (the first two games at Green Bay and hosting Washington, the game at the Giants, and the 3-game losing streak at New England and at home against Seattle and the Giants) and rarely could the team find a medium (the defense drove the win against Jets, the offense drove the win over the Saints, and both units tried to mesh to get the win over the Bills, but more often then not, the offense couldn’t go far enough). To be blunt, a lot of things went wrong with this team this year, and the record is no indication of what could have been if we hadn’t lost as many games as we did by five-points-or-less, which ended up being five for the season (13-10 to Green Bay, 19-16 to Chicago, 31-28 to New England, 28-24 to Seattle, and 16-13 to the Giants).
Now, I originally did this last year as my review for the year on the other message board I used to frequent but obviously my retrospective served it’s purpose but, to be fair, I will also do this because as there was, I predicted a number of things and challenged a number of people last year to step up and I wanted to follow up and see what exactly became of those situations.
So, I will address what I typed up first last year and how I did it, followed by ANOTHER batch of it this year to reflect on the upcoming season in (checks calendar) freaking NINE months!
Now, I do NOT have this saved anywhere on my computer to copy and paste what I typed and I will NOT go back and re-type all of these things so I will just rehash a few sentences from each. The first thing I did after my positive headlines for the season was create the next part entitled “This team couldn’t be worse at” with five things the team was, obviously, pretty bad at in 2006. So here I will review them and see what came of it:
1. The Run defense unit
“…But with names like Kearse, Howard, Cole, Trotter, Jones, Walker, and Patterson, there is NO EXCUSE AT ALL that the team should have finished 28th against the run. You can blame the loss of Kearse in week two, you can blame the fact that 1st round pick Broderick Bunkley didn’t do a damn thing, and you can blame the fact that Jones, LB Omar Gaither, and SS Sean Considine often tackled as if their hands were tied behind their back.”
Well, fast forward to 2007, and I think I can confidently say that we solved the problem: the team ended up 7th against the run (down a whole 21 spots) and Bunkley not only did something, but he also forced the runner if not away from him then right into Patterson, and the insertion of Cole as a starter gave the line a much better run stopper up front. In addition, the blitzing ability of Chris Gocong from SAM gave the team the option of deploying him on a running back if he figured the quarterback still had the football, and Gaither did much better against the run then we figured he would: oh, and some guy named Takeo Spikes was a force there as well. Just ask Adrian Peterson, Thomas Jones, Marion Barber, Kevin Jones, Shaun Alexander, and Brandon Jacobs what they went up against this year.
2. Receiver drops
“…A lot of it may have to do with the fact that McNabb has the ability to throw deeper and his arm may put the ball on the fingertips of receivers and they may not be able to pull the pass in (as opposed to Garcia lofting it softly)…So my solution is this: McNabb needs to throw more towards the medium passing range instead of taking all day to look downfield for the homerun all the time.”
Initially, I also said about how McNabb needed to stop scrambling as much too, but when you think about it, had he not done that, the 46 times he got sacked might have been more like 62 times. The drops I thought this year weren’t as bad, but then again, either the ball is going over the head or into the ground if McNabb does not have anyone open. That helps, because unlike with AJ Feeley, McNabb very rarely forces a pass into coverage to be picked off THAT way.
3. Offensive plays calling shifts and changes
“It’s fairly noted that during the time McNabb was out injured this past season that Westbrook saw a rather enlarged role in the offense (running), perhaps getting the offense back towards the 50-50 run-pass ratio that everyone and their mother said they were committed to during the 2006 training camp.”
REALLY glad to see that we kept favoring the pass over the run with McNabb back (oh, forgive that nasty and biting sarcasm), and even then when Feeley started, we didn’t even change the plan THEN either. I’m so glad that Westbrook catches the football as much as he does, because if he didn’t, he wouldn’t have ANYTHING on this team, and Correll Buckhalter: forget it!
4. Poorly timed reversals and trick plays
“Now in the Saints game back in week six, I know Reggie Brown took a pitch from McNabb for a touchdown, but the one that really sticks out in my mind was the Baskett pass in the Colts game which was intercepted when we were behind 21-7.”
Well, Brown took some pitches again this year for runs, and the flea flicker worked pretty well too, so it’s not like this hurt us at all this year.
5. The return game
“I know that Reno Mahe is an all-heart guy and someone who you want to make the team because he is a GREAT people’s player etc, but when was the last time he got a touchdown let alone a return past 55 yards?”
Never, and we got rid of Bethel Johnson AND Jeremy Bloom for Mahe on punts, and Buckhalter and JR Reed on kick returns, and with the latter two BOTH struggling on kicks, I have got to believe that kick coverage is the weak link, and something that, from Jim Harabaugh to Rory Seagrest, was NOT resolved either.
