Eagles-Chiefs Preview

I didn't have a full opportunity to do a full preview this week, but knowing what I know about the Eagles and the Chiefs, I don't think a full breakdown is needed. As long as the Eagles don't take the same haphazard approach in preparing for this game as I'm doing for this blog, they should have little difficulty with the young, rebuilding Chiefs no matter who lines up at quarterback.

The one trend I will point out that works against the Eagles is the fact that Andy Reid has a losing record (3-7) on the week before the bye, which is what this week is. The Eagles have also not fared well against the AFC during Reid's tenure. All that said, unless the Eagles beat themselves, I don't see how they lose this game.

My prediction: Eagles 30, Chiefs 12.

Review of Eagles Week 2

Unfortunately, I was correct in my prediction that the Eagles would lose Week 2 to the Saints. I know a lot of people point to the fact that the Eagles had back up quarterback Kevin Kolb in the game instead of the injured Donovan McNabb, but I believe the Eagles would have lost that game even if McNabb would have played.

Instead the special teams I feel deserve most of the blame for this loss. Obviously the easy goat is Ellis Hobbs for fumbling the opening kickoff of the second half. The two Eagles turnovers at the start of the second half turned a close game into a runaway. I want to focus on a special teams blunder that I thought actually may have been bigger. It was by one of my favorite players too. With a few minutes left in the 1st half and with the score tied 10-10, DeSean Jackson decided to try and return a punt from the 5 yard line. Veteran punt returners know you are better off letting those punts go into the endzone and let the offense take over at the 20 yard line. While DeSean got a great return, a penalty got called which meant that the Eagles got the ball half the distance to the endzone from where he caught it - the 2 1/2 yard line.

That blunder set up a situation where the Eagles had to play conservative being so close to their own endzone. This gave the Saints great field position which they converted into a touchdown, leaving the Eagles with some, but limited time. As a result, the Eagles were able to move the ball, but with time running out they had to settle for a field goal. Score at the half: 17-13. That misplay by Jackson set that whole string of plays up. Had he let the ball go into the endzone, the Eagles would have gotten the ball at the 20 and would have been able to play their full offense and at that point, they were having success moving the ball. Between those possessions at the end of the first half and the turnovers at the beginning of the second, the Eagles were in a hole from which they were never going to recover.

Despite the poor result, I would also like to just talk about the experience I had on opening day. There's no game quite like the home opener. The season is still fresh (although there was a bit of a downer this year with McNabb's injury) so anything is still possible. The weather is usually nice (Sunday was absolutely beautiful) which makes for great tailgating and a lively atmosphere. The opening festivities with the full field flag for the anthem and the jet fighter flyover can make your hair stand on end. Finally, I get to be reacquainted with 68,000 of my closest friends. While that last one is a hyperbole, since this is the 7th year at the Linc, I have gotten to know many of the people around me and it was good to see all the familiar faces again.

This season was a little different for me though. My usual "partner-in-crime" at all these games was not going this year and I wanted to find someone extra special to take & experience the magic of a home opener. Knowing that Jen would NEVER go to an Eagles game with me, there was only one other person I could think of taking - my dad. He took me to my first ball games as a kid & although I turned into a more die hard fan than him, he was willing to feed into my passion and take me to more games when I got older. Some of my best childhood memories were going to games with my dad, so it made sense that I would take him to the opener.

Earlier this year when I was selling the bulk of my season tickets on eBay, I realized that I had no pictures of the Linc past the 1st season. So I decided I would take my camera this year. It then dawned on me that in all the years of going to games with my dad, I had no pictures of the two of us at one. So I made sure that got corrected as well. The picture below is that shot & it is one I will cherish the rest of my life. Dad, I love you.

A bit of trivia for my family: do you notice anything about my dad in the picture? (Kristel can't answer as we already discussed it).

Eagles Review of Week 1 and Preview of Week 2

After predicting that the Eagles would lose the season opener to the Panthers, I am more than happy to eat a little crow. What I didn't count on was the fact that the best player for the Birds turned out to be Jake Delhomme. I give new defensive coordinator Sean McDermott a lot of credit for the game plan he drew up which forced Jake into a lot of bad decisions. It was a defensive masterpiece that would have made his mentor, the late Jim Johnson, proud.

Unfortunately for the defense, they were over shadowed by the big news of the game - Donovan's injury. I've been waiting to post my prediction for this week to see if there would be any good news on McNabb's injury and whether he'd be available this week. At this point, it is looking like Kevin Kolb might get his first start in the NFL this Sunday.

To be completely honest, I think this makes this week's game against the Saints very hard to pick. The Saints have a dynamic offense and Drew Brees will not be as easily forced into turnovers as Jake Delhomme was. I think the defense will have to play even better this week if they want to hold the Saints under 30 points.

All this means that the offense will have to produce points. Last week's 38-10 score was deceiving from an offensive standpoint. Consider that the special teams scored 1 touchdown, defense scored 1 touchdown and the defense set the offense up on the 10 yard line for another. That's 21 points essentially scored by defense and special teams, leaving the offense only responsible for 17 points.

This week they will have to do better with a back up quarterback. Normally you would think that this all adds up to an Eagles loss, but Andy Reid seems to thrive on developing winning game plans for back ups. He has done so with Koy Detmer, AJ Feeley and Jeff Garcia. Because of this, I wouldn't count the Eagles out so easily on this one.

Hopefully, not having Donovan will force the Eagles to run more, which is something they were very effective doing in Week 1. I have been very impressed with Jason Peters as a run blocking tackle, although his pass blocking still needs improvement. Fullback Leonard Weaver has also been a great addition to the running game. Running the ball more will also keep the explosive Saints offense off the field and could shorten the game. I know Andy Reid loves to pass the ball, but this is one week that screams for them to run. If they do, I think they have a real chance to win this game.

Alas, I think though that Andy will give into his passing side and that will spell doom for the Eagles. Ironically, before the season started, I had predicted the Eagles would be 1-1 after 2 weeks, I just had the games reversed.

My prediction: Saints 34, Eagles 26.