Rippers Retro: Game Two: Eagles vs Cowboys

RipperEagle Reviews:
Week 2: Eagles @ Cowboys
By RipperEagle (RE96)

When someone who was just a casual football fan saw that the Philadelphia Eagles and the Dallas Cowboys were playing on Monday Night Football in week two, they would probably just dismiss it as just another game. But the true fans of both the Cowboys and the Eagles know what the matches mean, and being that it was the 98th all time meeting between the two teams and that it took the main event slot was more important. Now, going into the game, there were many opinions as to what the score would be: these ranged from a Dallas blowout to a Philly blowout and everything in between. But, according to ESPN, 47 states in the US took the Cowboys to win the game against two states (apparently, New Jersey came up undecided) and after quarter one, they would have been right. But in the second, the Eagles made their case for winning the game and actually led at the half 30-24.

But, that’s when it all fell apart.

The Cowboys scored the only touchdown in the third quarter and also outscored the Eagles 10-7 in the final frame, and the Eagles only turnover cost the team as the Cowboys pulled out a win in a frantic match-up 41-37. The win moves Dallas into a tie for first place with the New York Giants at 2-0, while the Eagles are now tied with the Washington Redskins for second place at 1-1. Now, as I like to be a straight shooter, I will not be all giddy and try to say that we ALMOST won the game, because the bottom line is that we had as many leads in this game as they did, and it was up to US to keep our leads in tact, but we couldn’t do that, so I will be thoroughly honest with this.

Quarterbacks: You know when the Donovan McNabb of old is back? When he gets to scrambling around like he did and alluding defenders right and left, mostly linebackers because the big slow line couldn’t handle them. And granted, he didn’t get away from them all (he got sacked four times) but he got out of some that the McNabb of 2005, 2006, or 2007 wouldn’t have been able to do. His passing numbers ended up 25 of 37 (67.6%) for 281 yards and a touchdown while he ran five times for 20 yards and was tagged with two fumbles on two botched handoffs to Brian Westbrook, the latter of which was never picked up and killed the team. As a passer and considering that AGAIN he was missing his “two best receivers” and facing guys like Ken Hamlin, Anthony Henry, Adam Jones, Mike Jenkins, and even a 75% Terrance Newman, he didn’t do all that bad, but again, his oft ill communication on handoffs came back to kill the team later on.
McNabb Grade: A- (90%)

Running Backs: I might as well have just changed this title to Westbrook instead, because he was the only one who touched the ball in the game from a running aspect. Westbrook ran the ball 18 times for 58 yards and got across the plane two times rushing while also catching six passes for 45 yards and another touchdown. My only question in regard to his receptions is this: how come we went back to using him that much after what happened last week when the staff said we needed to take the load off of using him 1,000 times a game for that? As for the others, Correll Buckhalter and Lorenzo Booker had two catches each, Buckhalter tallying 15 yards and Booker eight yards. So if you are counting it up at home, Westbrook totaled 24 touches for 103 yards and three touchdowns. No usage of Tony Hunt as a receiver or a rusher in this game either.
Unit Grade: B+ (88%)

Wide Receivers & Tight Ends: The ineffectiveness of the receivers to get open downfield created a lot of problems for McNabb trying to pass the ball, as he couldn’t find someone open or even breaking away on most of his sacks. DeSean Jackson once again went over 100 yards receiving for the game as he had 110 yards on six receptions and would have had a touchdown had he not pulled a bonehead and thrown the ball away at the one yard line, putting it at a 61-yard touchdown reception. After him however is where the drop-off occurs: Greg Lewis had three catches for 36 yards, while Jason Avant and Hank Baskett had two catches each. Oh, and that big difference making tight end of ours? Yeah, LJ Smith had one big reception, which matched that of Brent Celek.
DeSean Grade: A (94%)
Grade after stupidity: B (84%)
Everyone else Grade: C- (70%_

Offensive line: Wow, what a difference a week makes for this unit. Last week, their praise and acclaim were both in heaps, this week however, they looked extremely slow and left McNabb on the run all the time. In fact, not only was the pass blocking rather weak, but there were a few instances where Westbrook came away with a loss of yards or zero to one yards. Now, I know playing a 3-4 defense is harder because there are four backers, but come on, how come Jason Hatcher, Jay Ratliff, Chris Canty, and Marcus Spears kept appearing in the backfield time after time? And what is this that I heard during the third quarter, that Shawn Andrews had an issue with his back, which is why Max Jean-Gilles came into the game? Oh well, we don’t know for sure: didn’t you get the memo, Mike, Tony, Ron, and Suzie are too busy talking about everything OTHER then the game on hand!
Unit Grade: D+ (69%)

Defensive line: Well, Broderick Bunkley brought it against the Cowboys running game, the question is, where was everyone else at? I know that Tony Romo did a good job of getting the passes off quickly, which forced the defensive line to get close but not close enough for a sack, but half of the time, it looked like Mike Patterson and Trent Cole were just simply out of position, and the latter looks nothing like the pro bowler he was last year. Bunkley had four total tackles while Juqua Parker had two tackles, Darren Howard and Patterson had two each, and Cole had one lousy tackle. Well, it IS only two games in, I am sure Trent will be able to find someone that he can get three sacks against to make up for it, or something like that.
Bunkley Grade: B+ (89%)
Everyone else Grade: C (75%)

Linebackers: Oh, what’s that I see? Jason Witten, riling off seven catches for 110 yards against us? Yeah well, I don’t see any reason to be surprised really. I mean, come on, don’t you know we can’t ever seem to cover this guy or even slow him down? The assignment mostly fell on Omar Gaither at WILL, who responded with five total tackles, while Stewart Bradley had four total tackles and Chris Gocong had an assisted tackle but also had the defensive play of the game. Romo, buried back at his own three yards line thanks to a bad kick return and then a penalty for a false start, went to hand the ball off to Marion Barber, but the ball slipped out of his hands before it got to him, and when he tried to pick it back up, he was hit and lost it, with Gocong scoring his first career touchdown.
Gocong Recovery Grade: A+ (100%)
Unit Grade: C (77%)

Secondary: Sheldon Brown had eight tackles to lead the team, but make no mistake, they weren’t up against the run, all of them. A lot of them came in coverage because Romo ended up hitting 70% of his passes for 312 yards, three touchdowns, and hit Terrell Owens three times for 89 yards and two touchdowns, the first score of which went right past Brown for 72-yards. Brian Dawkins had six tackles and a forced fumble on Romo in the end zone for the touchdown by Gocong, while Quintin Mikell had five tackles, and Sean Considine and Lito Sheppard both had two tackles. Asante Samuel also had two tackles, but he pulled in his first interception as an Eagle, and the first actual turnover forced by the defense this season, as Romo nailed him on the numbers after saving his pride from suffering a sack from Howard. And one might argue that the secondary struggled because of the lack of pressure 75% of the time or so from the defensive line, but still, with the guys we have, there is no excuse for these kind of efforts.
Unit Grade: C (75%)

Special Teams: Wow, was this truly a mixed bag or what? On one hand, David Akers was Mr. Automatic, hitting all three field goals he tried (from 34, 44, and 22, respectively) and also all four extra points to tally 13 for the game, and Sav Rocca also uncorked his foot to the tune of three punts for 48 yards an average and a long of 61 yards. And Quintin Demps averaged 25 yards a kick return on six, with a long of 47 yards in the final quarter, and Jones only averaged three yards a punt return on two for Dallas. But on the other hand, the coverage team on kicks were horrendous, allowing Felix Jones to average 41 yards a kick return on six of them with a 98-yard touchdown return in the 1st quarter, and the blocking for DeSean on punt returns was very poor, drawing penalties on two of his returns.
Akers and Rocca Grade: A (95%)
Demps Grade: B (85%)
Blocking and Coverage Grade: D+ (68%)

Coaching: You know when your coach doesn’t care, or when you kind of think ONE team is taking the pay off to lose the game on purpose? When your quarterback and running back, who just gave the game away, are laughing about it on the sidelines. And you know something else too? I am not sure what Jim Johnson and all of his respective position coaches were looking at, because if they DID make changes, they were half @$$ at best! Oh, and Rory Seagrest REALLY needs to get them guys to block and cover a bit better too, because it won’t get any easier with Santonio Holmes and Devin Hester in the next two weeks.
Coaching Grade: D (65%)

Ripper’s Three Game Balls:
3. DeSean Jackson: Despite his goof up (which didn’t hurt anyway because Dallas wasn’t bright enough to pick the ball up) he still got over 100 yards as a receiver on only six grabs, one going for 60-yards.
2. Brian Westbrook: The Mighty Mite got another stellar effort with three touchdowns and always was around the ball.
1. Donovan McNabb: Wins the top ball two weeks in a row from me: he could have just crumbled under the immense pressure from the Dallas D, but he didn’t, and he kept finding people right and left with the little time he got.
Honorable Mention: Asante Samuel and David Akers

Numbers and Stats of Interest:
-With his game tonight, Jackson becomes the first rookie receiver in NFL history since our very own Don Looney back in 1940 to start his career off with back-to-back 100 yard receiving games (guess working with Jerry Rice did him good).
-Dallas committed ten penalties for the game, marking the second straight week they were in the double digits (in Cleveland last week, they were flagged 11 times).
-During the game, the lead changed hands SEVEN times: after Philly took an early 3-0 lead, Dallas led 7-3, then Philly led 20-14, then Dallas led 21-20, then Philly led 27-21, then Dallas led 31-30, then Philly led 37-31, then Dallas led and won 41-37.
-McNabb had 281 yards passing for the game: in comparison, he had 297 yards in the first half of the season opener against the Rams last week.
-The Eagles were three of five inside the red zone scoring touchdowns, and three of four with goal to go: in comparison, the “best red zone D last year” allowed Dallas to score three out of three in the red zone, and two of two from the goal to go.
-The game set the record for most points scored both on Monday Night Football and also Eagles-Cowboys history with 78 total points.

Despite being a very hard fought game in which it was painful to watch us lose, the Eagles STILL need to work on a LOT of things if they want to keep going towards their goal, namely coverage on kicks and punts (both ours and the opponents) the offensive line HAS to handle the 3-4 better, and our secondary can’t keep getting beat deep like they did tonight. Oh, and I would also like to see this defensive line do a LITTLE bit better then it did tonight as well.