Well the Eagles got their hats handed to them Thursday night against the Pittsburgh Steelers and in typical Philadelphia fashion, the fan base is going crazy like Chicken Little screaming that the sky is falling. Before we overreact however, let’s remember a few things. First, it’s only a preseason game where teams are using a dumbed down playbook. As long as the team finishes the game without major injuries, I consider it a victory. Second, this is a team with a lot of new players on defense and they have a new defensive coordinator, so some growing pains are to be expected until all the players learn their roles and what is expected of them in the new system. Finally, a national embarrassment should cause them to realize that this is no “dream team” yet and that any accolades need to be earned. Based on Michael Vick’s “humble pie” comment after the game, I’m hoping that is the case.
All that being said, there are some real concerns I have coming out of Thursday night. They are, as follows:
1. Defense Against the Run: The whole Eagles team is built with a simple game plan. Get a lead & keep it. Their big play ability on offense is designed to get a quick lead. The defense’s strengths are in pass coverage and rushing the passer, so it will be hard for other teams to play catch up once the Eagles get a lead. Of course, this has one major flaw – what if they don’t get a lead and are playing catch up themselves. As has been the case throughout the Andy Reid era, our defense is fast but small. This makes us vulnerable to teams, like the Steelers, that will commit themselves to the run and just pound away at our smaller defense. The Steelers showed the league Thursday night how to beat the Eagles with this kind of approach. With the eventual return of DT Mike Patterson and the hopeful maturing of MLB Casey Matthews, I think the Eagles will improve in this area, but this has always been a weakness under Andy Reid and I see nothing that will change this.
2. “Soft” Corners: With the addition of cornerbacks Nnamdi Asomugha and Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie, I was hopeful that the Eagles were going to get away from the soft zone coverage they have played in the past. Under a new defensive coordinator, I had hoped Juan Castillo was going to implement a system that used these two players’ strengths, which is press, man-to-man coverage. Both of these cornerbacks are physical players who like to jam wide receivers on the line of scrimmage. What did I see on Thursday night? Too often I saw the same old defense that has driven me crazy all these years – they were playing 5-10 yards off the line of scrimmage in that soft zone the Eagles always play. It’s a style that works well for a player like Asante Samuel, who likes to read and react, but for two cornerbacks who like and thrive on contact, it’s the proverbial square pegs in round holes. I’ll give them a partial pass as they only got these new players a few weeks ago thanks to the drawn out labor dispute and they are also still trying to figure out how to use all three Pro-Bowl caliber corners in one system. But if the regular season starts and they still have these two guys consistently playing 5-10 yards off the receivers, then I might just lose it.
3. Michael Vick’s Ability to Read Defenses: Let me start this by saying that I have not been the biggest fan of Michael Vick as a quarterback. Even before the dog fighting incident happened and he was with the Atlanta Falcons, I had thought he was one of the most overrated players in the league. That being said, I think he made some real strides forward as a quarterback under Andy Reid’s tutelage. However, at the end of last season, defenses started bringing more pressure against him and started making him make quicker decisions in the pocket. We saw more of the same Thursday night. The interceptions he threw were clearly the result of him thinking the coverage was one thing when it was something else. Apparently, Andy Reid and Marty Mornhinweg have been working with Vick during training camp on his pre-snap reads and recognizing blitzes. They had said that he was getting better at this. We did not see that Thursday night. There is still a chance he could improve, but I think at some point, you have to realize that a player has gotten as good as he is going to get in a certain area. Don’t get me wrong – Michael Vick is an electric player with huge big play ability, but I still have my reservations about Vick’s ability to read a defense and when you get into the post season against better teams, they will force him to make good reads and beat them in the pocket. Hopefully, he’ll prove me wrong.
4. Offensive Line Struggles: Not helping Michael Vick is the fact that the offensive line has not done a good job of giving him time. They used their first round draft pick on right guard, Danny Watkins, but the right tackle position has also been a problem. Their first two options at RT were Winston Justice and King Dunlap, but they can’t stay healthy and everyone else they have tried there has struggled to put it mildly. Now they’ve signed Reggie Wells to play out there, but he was a player they had before but who couldn’t get on the field when they had struggles on the O-line last year. So you have a rookie and a question mark on the right side of the line. Considering that Michael Vick is left handed and these two positions are protecting his blind side, this is a major cause for concern. Additionally, I just read where they are going to start giving rookie center Jason Kelce snaps with the first team unit. So you could have an offensive line with two starting rookies. It may turn out that Watkins and Kelce end up being great players and an anchor on the offensive line for the next ten years, but for now, I’m less than thrilled that we might have two starting rookies on the offensive line.
Once again, it’s only preseason, but come this Thursday against the Browns, these are the four things I’m going to be watching to see if there is improvement. If there isn’t, I might start doing the Chicken Little dance with the rest of the Philly fan base.
