Eagles Vs Bears Review

Going into Solider Field in Chicago to face the Bears, it was pretty much common knowledge that Donovan McNabb, who went to Mt. Carmel in Chicago, had never lost in his hometown, winning a 2002 playoff game there 33-21, and then a 2004 season game there as well, 19-7. And judging from the back and forth action of Sunday Night’s game, it looked like it was one or two more plays away from continuing that trend in the first half, as the offense found the end zone pretty easily with two touchdowns, but at the same time, so was the Bears offense, who put up three of their own to take a 21-14 halftime lead.

Then in the second half, Dr. Jekyll pulled a Mr. Hyde.

Neither defense budged much, and with the Eagles already down seven points, the teams traded field goals and the Eagles added a second, meaning they only came out with three up but still fell by four, as the Bears defeated the Eagles 24-20 on Sunday Night Football on NBC. The loss for the Eagles not only puts them at 2-2 on the season with both losses coming in primetime affairs but also both on the road, but it temporarily puts them at the bottom of the division, with the Giants idle at 3-0, and when Washington beat Dallas 26-24, it made both teams 3-1, putting them 0.5 games behind New York and us 1.5 games behind. Turning points of the game included DeSean Jackson’s first punt return muff recovered by the Bears, which cost us a touchdown, two missed field goals by David Akers from 50 and 47, and also a 4th down and goal situation for the team with about 3:30 left in the game, failing to convert and basically ending our game. Despite all this however, the Bears were far removed from their mistakes, with four total turnovers, three of them in the 3rd quarter, but the Eagles only managed six points on these gifts.

Quarterbacks: McNabb, the Chicago native with his father and mother, Sam and Wilma respectively, in attendance and with both star runner and receiver Brian Westbrook and pro bowl right guard Shawn Andrews both out for the game, the focus was even more squarely on McNabb then usual. And this provides the ultimate scope into how the game played out: for the most part, this was pretty good, but it did come with some bad spots as well. For the game, McNabb hit 24 out of 40 passes at 60% completed for 248 yards with a touchdown and an interception while being tagged with two carries at minus five yards, one of which was a kneel down prior to the half, and the other a slip and slide thanks to Max Jean-Gilles. I’ve also been trying to figure out who was the fault of the interception, whether it was him or Jackson, the intended receiver, and have pretty much figured it was a total error in communication: while McNabb pointed inwards after the fact, his throw didn’t seem all that far inward its self.
McNabb Grade: B (85%)

Running and Full Backs: Having figured that the Eagles were going to keep passing the ball at any rate and that they had taken out another running back from our platoon, Correll Buckhalter made them pay for that mistake later on in the game. After getting only six carries for four yards in the first half, he ended up missing a few plays after he made the tackle on Bears safety Kevin Payne, who pulled in McNabb’s only interception of the game, and in the second half, he ran ten times for 62 yards, totaling 16 carries for 66 yards at 4.1 a run and our second touchdown of the game. And while he also caught two passes out of the backfield, including a 19-yard blooper saving it from being intercepted, his biggest missing attributes were his pass blocking skills. Because let’s face it, we gave flack to Tony Hunt for his blocking as a rookie last year, but Lorenzo Booker looked just as terrible in there, as he got two carries for seven yards and caught one pass which lost three yards due to a miss block by HIM. Hunt had two catches for 26 yards and a carry for one yard, while Jackson also lit up the backfield with two carries for 35 yards on receiver reversals.
Buck Grade: A (93%)
Hunt Grade: B (83%)
Booker Grade: C- (70%)

Wide Outs and Tight Ends: Funny how things work out in this offense: Hank Baskett, who led the unit with eight catches and 85 yards a week ago against Pittsburgh, was held to the bottom with two others at one, as Jackson collected five catches for 71 yards and a touchdown (and his first of the season, his second had he not passed the ball backwards in Irving) while Reggie Brown matched him in catches and had 65 yards and could have had two more catches, but he had a beauty of a 31-yard catch down the left side of the field, our longest pass play. Jason Avant collected four catches for 29 yards, most of them while laying on the ground, and Baskett and Greg Lewis both collected one catch each. Oh, and here are a few facts about the starting tight end from last night, Brent Celek: fact, he caught three passes, which in one game was HALF of what LJ Smith did in three games previously. Fact, he is making 3.7 million dollars less this season then Smith is. And fact, Tony Gonzalez said he would take a trade…get my drift? Oh, and as usual, we saw our fair share of receivers get hit in the hands and drop the ball, or like with Matt Schobel, have a catch on the numbers and drop it for fear of getting hit.
Unit Grade: B- (80%)

Offensive Line: For the most part, the offensive line did pretty good despite once again missing Andrews due to a lower back injury. His replacement, Jean-Gilles, allowed the replacements for Pro Bowl defensive tackle Tommie Harris, those being Israel Idonije and Marquis Harrison, to only one sack and did pretty well plowing down for the running game. Two of the teams three penalties, however, did come against the offensive line as Jon Runyan and Todd Herremans were both called for false starts, but the match-ups between Tra Thomas and Alex Brown and Runyan and Adewale Ogunleye produced only one half sack (from Adewale helping out Daniel Manning) and they pretty much had the vindication of having their faces put on milk cartoons with the usual “missing” details following it up. A lot of the time, McNabb got plenty of passing time, and the run blocking when they did run later on in the game was good too. Oh, and don’t forget this effort came against the FEARSOME Bears superstar defense!
Unit Grade: A- (90%)

Defensive line: I said from the outset to Bears fans who tried to question me about Matt Forte’s success and his yards from scrimmage that we would shut him down: we were not the #1 defense against the run (44.7 yards a game) and per carry (2.8 a run) for nothing, and shut them down we did do very well. That said, they ALSO got after Kyle Orton to a certain degree of harassment seen in the case that Marc Bulger is trying to present against the Eagles in NFL football court, but he should feel lucky…Big Ben is suing us for severe harassment in the NFL court! I take back everything I said about Trent Cole prior to the Steelers game as the guy is turning into himself again, leading the unit and finishing second on the team with eight tackles and a sack which forced a fumble as well. Broderick Bunkley posted three run stopping tackles while Juqua Parker also had three tackles (two solo and one assist) and posted another solo sack, putting him at 3.5 on the year so far. Mike Patterson and Dan Klecko also posted a tackle apiece but both were memorable for one reason or another: Patterson actually overpowered right guard Roberto Garza with one arm and used the other to tackle Forte, and Klecko got a sack, posting his second of the year. Trevor Laws also posted the first tackle of his career, and Darren Howard became the first player NOT named Asante Samuel to pick off a pace on what SHOULD have been Parker’s second sack of the game on Orton. Oh, and while is may have been slightly higher then the average, we gave up 78 yards rushing on 26 carries for three a run, and Forte had 43 yards on 19 carries.
Unit Grade: A (95%)

Linebackers: Despite what I said at the end of the column for the Steelers game, I made the general mistake of listening to Al Michaels and John Madden call the game, and while listening to pure genius (like Madden talking about how there were no leftovers from Wilma’s cooked team dinner on Saturday despite not understanding how he made the scene if it was our own team only) they did say one thing I agreed with: the linebackers are always around the ball and making plays nonstop. Omar Gaither led the team with nine tackles, most of them in stopping Forte or Jones in their tracks, while also recovering the forced fumble from Cole, while Stewart Bradley had four tackles and a recovered fumble on the botch between Orton and Kevin Jones, and Chris Gocong had three tackles while being the only non-lineman to collect a sack, even though Howard was also in the backfield to supervise his work. One thing I did notice about Gocong in particular, though, was his pass coverage and instinct tackling were both far better: outside that “touchdown” by Greg Olsen, he did much better against the tight ends.
Unit Grade: A (95%)

Secondary: Sloppy coverage by Samuel on Devin Hester and the failure of the safeties to figure out who was supposed to be covering Marty Booker may have been the only mistakes otherwise from the secondary, which held their 3rd quarterback to under 200 yards passing for the game (Orton had 199 yards). Quintin Mikell had five tackles and would become the first secondary member not named Asante to collect an interception on the season while Brian Dawkins had three tackles and Sheldon Brown had two tackles, and Asante Samuel and Lito Sheppard had one apiece. And the fact that Samuel and Sheppard only had one tackle each when they were mostly lined up on Hester and Brandon Lloyd prior to his injury speak wonders about their ability to cover arguably their most prolific weapons.
Unit Grade: A- (90%)

Special Teams: David Akers was ridiculous today, and I do NOT mean that in a way that he was good. TWO missed field goals, being down four points, makes ALL the difference between winning 26-24 and losing 24-20, and if he cannot hit them from 50 and 47 while others easily can, then it is time for him to move along and we need someone else. On the positive, Sav Rocca did fairly well punting again, averaging 44.2 yards a punt and blasting one which went 65 yards and then forced Hester to retreat another eight yards once he made the catch to his own 2-yard line. Quintin Demps averaged 24 yards a kick return on four, Jackson nine yards a punt return on four and his fumble, and our coverage teams allowed 24 yards a kick return average between three return men, and Hester ZERO yards per average on punts.
Rocca Grade: A (95%)
Coverage Grade: A- (90%)
Returns Grade: B- (80%)
Akers Grade: F (55%)

Coaching: Two weeks ago, I called out Rory Seagrest and Jim Johnson after their units’ disgusting effort in the Dallas game, and both responded with flying colors in beating Pittsburgh and continued yet again in Chicago for the most part (minus Bonehead Akers and Jackson’s sit down muff) but this week it is time to call out Andy Reid and Marty Mornhenwheg. Now, I understand that Brian, LJ, and Shawn were missing from the game against Chicago and for the most part against Pittsburgh, but those three shouldn’t take our offense from scoring 38 and 37 points a game down to 15 and 20 points a game just like that. I mean, it isn’t like Max hasn’t played that badly in Shawn’s absence, it isn’t like Correll isn’t capable of seeing 20 carries or so a game (although Brian rarely does himself though) and LJ well…he sucks anyway. But I am failing to understand why, on 66 total plays on offense, 43 FREAKING TIMES we called for a passing play, as opposed to only 23 RUN PLAYS! That makes the pass-run ratio 68-32 percent, and I was only KIDDING after the Steelers game when I said our team would become 70-30 if Brian were to miss the Bears game. Do Andy and Marty have that little confidence in Correll and the others that we must always do this when Brian is out?
Jimmy J Grade: A (95%)
Rory Grade: B (85%)
Andy and Marty Grade: C (75%)

Ripper’s Three Game Balls:
3. Correll Buckhalter: Despite being screwed over on his carries, Correll did what Correll could do though, touching the ball 18 times for 89 yards and a touchdown rushing, even tough he missed time in the 3rd quarter due to an injury.
2. Trent Cole: Eight tackles from our pro bowl defensive end and a sack and forced fumble show that is in fact back!
1. Omar Gaither: Second great game he had, leading the team in tackles with nine and also picking up the fumble from Trent: played shadow on Forte and Jones.
Honorable Mention: Punt coverage unit and DeSean Jackson (kept off the list only due to his fumble on the punt)

Numbers and Stats of Interest:
-Entering the game, Donovan and Andy were tied with former 49ers Coach Bill Walsh and Quarterback Joe Montana for most wins by a head coach and quarterback who started their careers off together in the same year with 75. Obviously, they will have to wait another week to break that mark.
-Points off of turnovers hurt the Eagles: on four turnovers, the Eagles offense only posted two field goals, and on two turnovers, the Bears posted a touchdown.
-The third quarter was brutal to the Bears: they netted only two yards of offense, committed three turnovers, and couldn’t post a 1st down from the start of the half to the 12:39 mark in the 4th quarter.
-Despite losing only by four points, the Eagles never led in the game: the score went 7-0 Bears, 7-7, 14-7, 14-14, 21-14 at the half, 21-17, 24-17, and 24-20.
-Jon Runyan and his 24-game streak without a penalty call against him was snapped in the 1st quarter when he was hit with a false start call.
-How many stadiums can say both the time clock AND the play clock froze at the same time? From the 13:14 mark to the 10:23 mark in the 4th quarter, it did at Solider Field, then again, it is a pretty old stadium.

If a couple of things would have turned our way instead of the way of the home team Bears, the Eagles could easily be 3-1, but as it stands, they now have two primetime losses both by four points, and dating back to the start of 2007, our primetime games record is 0-6, 0-4 on the road and 0-2 at home. The team needs to regroup and get some of that early season adrenaline pumped back into the offense once more, and the defense cannot get discouraged by the lose because they played too great to lose the game. The Washington Redskins are next, and they won in Irving…can they repeat the act in Philadelphia?