WildCard Win VS Vikings

Once you have entered the playoffs, the situation becomes much more simplified then during the season: if you win you go on, and if you lose, then you take a spot on the couch with the 20 teams who couldn’t cut it. As wildcard weekend came to a close, conveniently, with the Philadelphia Eagles and Minnesota Vikings, four teams were eliminated from the equation. On Saturday, the teams unworthy of being in the playoffs due to winning weak West divisions (San Diego Chargers in the AFC and the Arizona Cardinals in the NFC) eliminated the 12-4 Indianapolis Colts and the 11-5 Atlanta Falcons, respectively. In the early game on Sunday, the Baltimore Ravens ridiculed the host Miami Dolphins to resoundingly defeat them and move on, thus leaving the NFC’s 6th and 3rd seeds to do battle. And it would be the first playoff match between Brad Childress and his mentor Andy Reid.

And like their first season match in 2007, Andy won this one as well.

Every unit, from the offense to defense and special teams, contributed yards and points to the cause, and the Eagles outscored the Vikings in two quarters and held the Nordic Fins scoreless in every quarter except the second, as the Eagles defeated the Vikings 26-14. The offense accumulated 350 net yards and a touchdown, the defense supplied two turnovers and a touchdown off an interception, and special teams punched out 109 punt return yards against the worst coverage unit in the NFL and 12 points off of field goals. The team’s wildcard victory sets up a return to familiar territory, as they will be going to the Meadowlands for the second time this season to face the NFC’s top seed, the New York Giants, next Sunday at 1:00 PM. In their season match there this year, the Eagles defeated the Giants 20-14 on Sunday, December 7th. The loss would also stand as the only smudge on an otherwise perfect home record for the Giants, finishing 7-1.

Quarterbacks: Having many receivers and ball catchers has never been a problem for Donovan McNabb, and it certainly wasn’t a problem today either, as he nailed eight different targets. Despite being on the run more often then not, McNabb still managed to complete 23 of 34 passes (67.6%) for 300 yards with a touchdown, an interception, a lost fumble, and a 92.8 QB rating. The turnovers in question are certainly up for debate as to who is to blame: the interception it looked like his intended receiver Kevin Curtis gave up on it, and the forced fumble by Vikings End Jared Allen occurred when Tra Thomas forgot how to block him on the blindside. Despite these miscues and the fact that he was sacked three times, McNabb still was deadly accurate when given time, and even then, when he made his own time.
McNabb Grade: B (85%)

Running Backs: For the first 53:23 of the game, Brian Westbrook was held very much in check, not only running the ball but also receiving as well. But then all it took was one screen pass dump off, and that changed not only the complexion of the game but his impact on it as well. On the ground, Westbrook ran the ball 20 times for 38 yards and managed only a long of ten yards, and he had three receptions for 83 yards, including 71 on the only offensive touchdown of the game. Correll Buckhalter had two carries on the game, both back-to-back in the 1st quarter, for 27 yards and zero yards, while DeSean Jackson, a star on punt returns, had one receiver reverse for two yards. More incorporating of Buckhalter would be nice next week, but I was surprised to see Westbrook even got 20 carries for as bad as it was going for the most part on the ground.
Unit Grade: B- (80%)

Wide Receivers: As though it seems to be the norm to see every receiver spotted at least one pass on the game, the Eagles got two receivers who seemed to play a bigger hand in the numbers. Jason Avant led the unit with five receptions for 47 yards, including three catches on third down, while Curtis had four receptions for 49 yards. Rarely used Reggie Brown had two receptions for 17 yards while Jackson had one reception which was a dandy, going for 34 yards, while Hank Baskett had one reception for seven yards and could have had another later on if he hadn’t timed his jump wrong. It should be noted that in pre-game warm ups, that Greg Lewis somehow hurt his foot and while he did play, he wasn’t used much.
Unit Grade: B (83%)

Tight Ends: Statistically speaking, Brent Celek had the second best day of his young career (aside from the Seahawks game in week nine) as he caught six passes for 56 yards, filling in again for that human franchise tag, LJ Smith. It should also be noted that Celek appeared to be a much more reliable chip blocker on Allen then Thomas was an upright blocker on said end. And you would be shocked, oh yeah SHOCKED I tell you, to know we had a Matt freaking Schobel sighting, as he caught one pass for seven yards.
Celek Grade: A- (90%)

Offensive Line: Well, it’s pretty obvious you know when someone is outmatched, and it wasn’t like Winston Justice was out there against Allen. Jared ended up with three tackles, two sacks, two tackles for a loss, two QB hurries, a pass defense, and a forced fumble when he just walked right around Thomas. Not very good for someone who wants to be re-signed this off-season. But don’t fear, because while Jon Runyan didn’t allow Bryan Robison, the backup to the injured Ray Edwards any sacks, he did get two hurries and one of them was when Runyan ran him right into McNabb, forcing the errant throw to Baskett. And both Jamaal Jackson and Nick Cole were flagged, Jackson for holding which was declined and Cole for a false start. So, I guess the lone clean linemen was Todd Herremans, who was matched up against Kevin Williams. The guys are going to have to do a better job not only pass blocking, but run blocking against the Giants.
Herremans Grade: B+ (88%)
Runyan, Jackson, Cole Grade: C- (79%)
Thomas Grade: D+ (68%)

Defensive Line: It’s rare that a defensive lineman leads everyone in tackles, but it is extremely rare when the lineman goes into double digits in tackles. But such was life for Trent Cole, who was like Allen was for Thomas up against Vikings tackle Bryant McKinnie sans the sacks, as Cole had 13 tackles (seven solo and six assist) and one tackle for a loss. Mike Patterson was as equally as active up against Anthony Herrera, who was in for Ex-Eagle Artis Hicks, as he had six tackles and one for a loss, and Juqua Parker had three tackles and a tackle for a loss and recovered a fumble when Vikings center Matt Birk and QB Tavarias Jackson had a goof in their communications. Chris Clemons had one tackle and a pass defense, but auspicious by their absence from the stat sheet were Broderick Bunkley and Darren Howard. Trevor Laws had a penalty for being off-sides (how that happens on a tackle is beyond me) and Cole was off-sides as well. The line was a huge hand in limiting the Vikings offense to 148 rushing yards, and I say limiting because while Adrian Peterson had 83 yards rushing on the day, he had 40 on one lucky run, thus severely ballooning their numbers. In addition, there was at least four times during the game that the Vikings COULD have been flagged for holding but weren’t.
Unit Grade: B+ (88%)

Linebackers: It might appear as if Stewart Bradley leads this group, but make no mistake, Chris Gocong is just as impressive when he gets his chances too. Bradley led the unit with six tackles, a QB hurry, and a pass defense while Gocong had four tackles, one for a loss, and also a tackle on special teams. But their newest partner at WILL, Akeem Jordan, had a sub par game: while he did have four tackles, he whiffed the first tackle which could have prevented Peterson from running for the 40-yard touchdown and also had a very stupid roughing the passer penalty late in the game when the score was still 23-14. Tank Daniels had two assist tackles on defense and one tackle on special teams.
Bradley & Gocong Grade: A (93%)
Jordan Grade: C (75%)

Secondary: One is younger and one is older, but the safety duo of Quintin Mikell and Brian Dawkins have to be one of the most underrated duos in the league, and it is a shame that they didn’t get to team up fulltime until this year. Mikell had eight tackles and a pass defense which, likewise with week 16 and 17, should have been intercepted but the ball fell to the turf instead. Dawkins had six tackles, had the team’s only sack, a pass defense, and a forced fumble on Jackson which recovered by the quarterback. Sheldon Brown had four tackles and had two pass defenses, one of which went right in and out of his hands in front of receiver Bernard Berrian. The continuously demoted Lito Sheppard had two tackles while Joselio Hanson had one tackle. Asante Samuel, who was questionable with a hip injury, had one tackle and an interception for “pick six”, which was aided in large part due to Clemons doing his impersonation of the Great Khali “Tree Slam” on Jackson at the goal line. The continuous pressure and coverage schemes proved to be a nightmare for Jackson, who was held to 42.9% completion percentage and 164 yards passing.
Unit Grade: A (95%)

Special Teams: An outstanding effort from every corner of special teams except for one area. David Akers was the early game MVP prior to someone finally scoring a touchdown in a white jersey, as he nailed four field goals and two extra points, totaling 14 of the 26 team points. Sav Rocca turned back to his good punting self as he booted four punts, all inside the 20-yard line, and averaged 44.3 a punt and 44 yards net, due to outstanding coverage which allowed only one punt return for a yard by Berrian. Jackson was outstanding on punt returns, averaging 21.8 yards a return on five and hitting out on a 62-yard return on his first attempt in the game. Kick coverage allowed Maurice Hicks and Peterson only 21.9 yards a return, but by the same token, our coverage for Quintin Demps and his own returns were horrible, averaging 15.7 yards a return on three and maxing out at 19-yards.
Akers Grade: A+ (100%)
Rocca, Jackson, punt coverage Grade: A+ (98%)
Kick Blocking and returns Grade: C- (70%)

Coaching: A very solid outing by the defense up against the offense of the Vikings, outside of the one drive which put them at 14 points…yeah, that first drive for a touchdown was very fluky. Special Teams was great except for our inability to get anything going on kick returns, whether for lack of blocking, return ability, or both. And without going into detail and running down numbers for the offense, I will say that the trust in running the ball, even when it was obvious that we weren’t moving, is something we need to keep doing. We ran the ball 23 times, and while we only averaged 2.9 yards a run as a team, that was up against the league’s best run defense THREE YEARS IN A ROW, despite the fact that they were without Pat Williams and Edwards. It’s been a pretty notable occurrence that when we cannot run the ball we give up on it, and we really cannot afford to do that especially when we are ahead, which we were after we made it 9-7 in the second quarter.
Special Teams Grade: A (95% - Yes even with the kicks being bad)
Defensive Grade: A (93%)
Offensive Grade: B (85%)

Ripper’s Three Game Balls:
3. DeSean Jackson: Was huge on punt returns: had a total of 145 multipurpose yards, but 109 on punt returns and only 36 on offense.
2. Asante Samuel: Pick six on his interception ties him for 2nd most in post-season history: not bad for having a “bad hip”.
1. David Akers: Struck early and often when the offense couldn’t do it: struck from anywhere and anywhere and hit all four tries.
Honorable Mention: Brian Dawkins, Donovan McNabb, and Trent Cole (I’ll be honest, it was a pretty tough call this week as who to leave off and include here)

Stats and Numbers of Interest:
-The Eagles are now 2-0 all-time against the Vikings in the playoffs: both wins were the first of which propelled them to their two Superbowl appearances, for the 1980 and 2004 seasons.
-Andy Reid improved his playoff record to 9-6, the most wins and appearances of any one coach in Eagles history. In addition, he is now 2-0 against his former pupil Brad Childress.
-Minnesota was not flagged for a penalty until the 4th quarter when Berrian was called for a false start @ 7:31. However, three times the Vikings were flagged on their game ending drive after the Eagles made it 26-14, including two false starts on Ryan Cook and a holding call on Herrera.

One game down, and two more to go until we make our way to Tampa Bay. We have won in the Meadowlands during the season, but will that matter when the Eagles meet up with the well rested Giants?