Redskins Vs Eagles Review

After watching what the Washington Redskins did a week ago when they went to Irving Texas to play the Dallas Cowboys, it would be of considerable concern if the Philadelphia Eagles were to fall behind in the game like the Cowboys did a week before. And in the starting minutes of the game, it was all Eagles all the time, with a 14-0 lead leaving the first quarter with a rushing touchdown and a punt return touchdown, the first of his career from DeSean Jackson.

But the autopilot, it went on way to early.

A bend but don’t break defense yielded three field goals in the second quarter before finally breaking into pieces by yielding two second half touchdowns. But it wouldn’t have been so bad had the offense actually been able to do something other then just on their opening drive and their closing drive. Because let’s face it, without the Jackson punt return for a touchdown, this game really wasn’t even close despite the team taking the early 7-0 lead with the game’s first drive. The 23-17 win for the Redskins allows them to move back within a half game of the division leading New York Giants at 4-0 after their blowout of the Seattle Seahawks 44-6 and into a technical tie with the Dallas Cowboys, who are 4-1 as well with their win over the Cincinnati Bengals 31-22, leaving the Eagles at 2-3, two games out of second place and 2.5 games out of 1st place in the division. The loss is also the team’s second in the division and also their first home loss of the season.

Quarterbacks: It is much to say that Donovan McNabb was not in a hurry all that much today, which begs the question as to why the ball was rarely, if ever, thrown downfield, or why they didn’t try and take a risk once in a while. Not having taken a sack and rarely even seeing a Redskins defender in the backfield with him, McNabb completed 17 of 29 passes for 58.6% with 196 yards and no touchdowns, no interceptions, and a 79.1 QB rating. And while a share of the missed passes were knocked down at the line, mostly by Defensive End Andre Carter, some of them were dropped, ones by Brent Celek, Greg Lewis, and Jason Avant bobbling the ball on the sideline are the ones that come to mind first. Still, he never showed any ailment of being hurt, although that might be because he was never hit much.
McNabb Grade: B (82%)

Running and Full Backs: Well, the good news is that, after missing the Chicago Bears game last week, Brian Westbrook returned to the field against Washington today. The bad news, however, is that he was either misused when he was used or he wasn’t nearly used enough in the game. Westbrook ran the ball 12 times for only 33 yards but the only offensive touchdown while also grabbing a team high six receptions for 51 yards, totaling 18 touches for 84 yards and a touchdown. Maybe the only thing that the coaching staff heard from me last week was to incorporate more Jackson rushing attempts, as he took two receiver reversals for 13 yards, while Reggie Brown took a pitch for six yards, Tony Hunt got a powerful burst up the middle for six yards, and Correll Buckhalter, the starter from last week in Chicago, ran the ball two times for zero yards.
Unit Grade: C+ (78%)

Wide Outs and Tight Ends: I’ve been giving Brown a little bit of crap for not getting back into the lineup for a few weeks, but he looked good against Chicago and looked a little better against Washington as he caught four passes for 84 yards, including a 40-yard shoulder roll, get up and run catch. Maybe then as well is LJ Smith, who caught three passes for 26 yards while four players came up with one catch apiece: Greg Lewis for 22 yards, Jackson for eight, Hunt for two, and Jason Avant for three yards. I think the results here today were a mixed bag, while Brown and Smith looked pretty good all around, the three guys I mentioned in the quarterback grade kind of drag the grade down with their drops.
Unit Grade: C+ (78%)

Offensive line: Whether you want to blame the line for the lack of a running game or the runners themselves is your call, but there is no doubt that the line came to play against the pass, allowing no sacks and no quarterback hurries. In fact, only one penalty was called on the offensive line (Jamaal Jackson’s false start, or illegal snap, depending upon which outlet you want to listen to) while LJ was the only one to get called with a holding call. True, Jason Taylor did not play, but Carter was contained pretty well by Big Jon Runyan, while the backup to Taylor, Demetric Evans, was not heard of against Tra Thomas. And for the third straight game, Max Jean-Gilles got the call at right guard for the injured Shawn Andrews and perhaps turned in his best all-around game so far this season. Todd Herremans and Jackson, of course, were also integral in shutting down the defensive tackle duo of Cedric Griffin and Kedric Golston.
Unit Grade: A (93%)

Defensive line: It was the Mike Patterson show, and while he was able to overpower the interior duo of Casey Rabach and Randy Thomas, it is just a shame it resulted in run stops instead of sacks, as he posted up ten total tackles (eight solo and two assist) while his partner in crime Broderick Bunkley had four tackles, again all of them on the run. Trent Cole, while he historically struggles against Tackle Chris Samuels, still had four tackles on the run, and Juqua Parker had three more tackles, while Darren Howard and Trevor Laws added one: Parker also had a pass defense and Cole had a tackle for a loss, which was rare that they got to Clinton Portis in the backfield. However, the entire collection of defensive linemen were just dominated all day by the Redskins offensive line, resulting in a total of 203 rushing yards.
Unit Grade: C- (70%)

Linebackers: The stat line for Chris Cooley went like this: eight catches for 109 yards and a touchdown. The reason I put this hear is that, traditionally, the linebacker is supposed to be the one that is responsible for the end, but Cooley pretty much just ran roughshod over them all. Stewart Bradley co-led the team with ten tackles and had one quarterback hurry, while Omar Gaither had six tackles and a pass defense while Chris Gocong was pretty much invisible in coverage and against the run with one tackle and one pass defense. On one hand, their job was made more difficult because the line got pushed around, but on the other hand, a few missed tackles piled up as well.
Unit Grade: C (75%)

Secondary: It wasn’t Jason Campbell who haunted the secondary, because Portis and Laddell Betts already did that on the ground, so the secondary didn’t get as much action as they would have liked. Brian Dawkins was everywhere again, tallying eight tackles, the game’s ONLY sack with a tackle for a loss and a quarterback hurry. Sheldon Brown had four tackles and a pass defense, while Asante Samuel and Quintin Mikell both had four tackles as well, while Lito Sheppard had one tackle, with Mikell also posting a quarterback hurry. Once again, the rating for the secondary might be a bit off due to the fact that the true damage was done on the ground by the Redskins.
Unit Grade: B (85%)

Special Teams: Once again, I am left to ask how many more missed field goals will it take until we make a move for someone who can actually kick the ball straight? I don’t know what is going on with David Akers, but his kicks are long enough, but two out of the last three misses have just sailed the wrong way instead. Akers was one of two while also hitting two extra point attempts, while Sav Rocca averaged 50.4 yards a punt, netting 42.8 a punt and also putting two of them inside the 20 for another marvelous effort. And, well, what can be said about Jackson and his SOLE punt return opportunity, other then 68-yards for his first return for a touchdown in the NFL, one week after getting his first reception for a touchdown. However, the kick return coverage for Quintin Demps was abysmal, as was Tank Daniel’s stupidity on special teams. Remember, this is the SAME stuff that got Matt McCoy kicked off the team a year ago. In fact, he was VERY lucky the officials left their glasses at home and picked up the flag on his penalty on Jackson’s touchdown. Oh, and the punt and kick coverage units were average at best.
Jackson Grade: A+ (100%)
Rocca Grade: A (95%)
Coverage Grade: B- (80%)
Kick blocking and Akers Grade: C- (70%)

Coaching: At the 8:06 mark in the 4th quarter, it was as if I was reliving another horrible nightmare, such as the week before when we failed to get the ball in from a yard out against Chicago, only this week, we got three points instead of nothing. The defensive staff at backers and linemen along with Jimmy Johnson deserve some flack as well for their units getting pushed around the field, especially in the second half. Special teams was, for the most part, pretty good, but again, I have a huge quip with the 3rd and one call to run, because we are such a PASS ORIENTED TEAM that we should have run that fade to Hank Baskett…ere, where exactly WAS he?
Rory Grade: A- (90%)
Andy Grade: B- (80%)
Jimmy Grade: C (75%)

Ripper’s Three Game Balls:
3. Offensive Line: Outstanding pass blocking, and McNabb was protected in the game like Fort Knox.
2. Brian Dawkins: The “Old Washed Up Safety” had the game’s only sack, and was his usual flying all over the place self.
1. DeSean Jackson: The images of a punt return touchdown were not a mirage, and wearing his jersey today brought the first touchdown of the year there.
Honorable Mention: No one

Numbers and Stats of Interest:
-The league’s best defense against the run and yards per carry were taken apart by Washington: in the first four games, we gave up only 215 yards rushing at an average of 2.8 yards a run, both tops. Washington ran the ball for 203 yards and averaged 4.6 yards a carry as a team.
-Three times a team held the ball for over 10 minutes in a quarter, as the Eagles held the ball for 11:23 in the first quarter and the Redskins had it for 12:12 in the second and 11:32 in the third. Also, Washington sustained two drives of seven minutes or longer, including the final 7:18 to run the clock out.
-On their opening touchdown drive, the Eagles posted 80 yards after Westbrook’s touchdown: on the following seven drives, the team was only able to amass 88 yards, leading to five punts, a missed field goal, and the half.
-With the lack of a turnover during the game, Washington again has zero on the season, making them only team to have that mark.

Well, it is kind of hard to win games when you cannot stop the run and you decide to take your foot off the gas when you jump out to a 14-0 lead in the game. In time, these are issues that the staff is going to have to fix, unless they want to go to our bye week in week seven with a 2-4 record, and more then likely, three games back in the most competitive division in the NFL.