Thursday, November 14, 2013

The Whole Eagles Jazz! Packers Recap/Redskins Preview


With a 5-5 record in place after the Eagles defeated a injury plauged Packers team that was starting Scott Tolzien at Quarterback....SCOTT TOLZIEN! Nick Foles was once again stellar with 3 passing touchdowns, all in which were over 30 yard passes. Foles is now becoming the possible franchise quarterback for the Eagles down the road. Michael Vick will be sidelined still for a while but even when he comes back, don't expect him to see the field if Foles continues his winning ways. The stats don't lie, the Eagles are 3-1 with Foles and 2-4 with Vick. #9 has 16 touchdowns to 0 interceptions and is again making the record books this season for his incredible statistics. The Packers defense had no answer for the running game either, Lesean McCoy ran for 155 yards as well as Nick Foles with 38 rushing yards. McCoy finally got out of his slump he was in the past couple weeks, and helped ice the game with that last drive the Eagles ran in which they pounded the ball downt the Packers throats. By the way how about those Eagles wide receivers?! Desean Jackson has not gotten enough praise this year for his stellar play. With 903 yards, Jackson is third in the league in receiving, not to mention his 7 touchdowns to go a long with it. The label on Desean the past seasons are "One Dimensional" "Home Run Hitter" "Electric" some of these are true but he is most certainly not one dimensional this season. Chip Kelly has used him all over the field. Yes he has been a home run hitter, but that is just what he does. All of his touchdowns have been over 30 yards, but he isn't just catching deep passes. The offense has used Jackson in screen passes, intermediate routes, reverses, and finally once again punt returning. A big reason Jackson has been able to produce is because of that other WR on the opposite side named Riley Cooper. What a delight to see Riley Cooper have these beautiful numbers for starting off the year with only 8 receptions and 1 td with Vick under center (Actually mainly in shot gun), but with Nick Foles he has 5 touchdowns all in which have been deep bombs (Minus one red zone td against Oakland). With Cooper playing at such a high level, is Maclin guaranteed a large contract extension next year coming off a torn acl? I guess that is a discussion for another time. Lets get on to those Redskins shall we? A HUGE game coming up Eagles Nation, a HUGE game! With a bye week coming up after the Washington bout, the Eagles are in a must win situation already. Yes they are only 10 weeks in, and yes they are 5-5, but the Eagles have not one a game in Lincoln Financial field since week 4 of last year! Remember when it was so tough to play in Philadelphia? Both Foles and McCoy said in their press conferences that they need to get a win on their home turf, especially agaisnt a division rival who is clawing at our heals to get back into the NFC East hunt. With the Cowboys at a bye week, the Eagles could move up to 6-5 and take sole lead of the East. As for the defense, they have been improving every week and wow what a performance last Sunday. Brandon Boykin and Demco Ryans continue to make plays, this may be because of how hot that defensive line has been. Vinny Curry has 4 sacks and leads the team since being in the dog house earlier in the season. Mychal Kendricks is for now questionable for this week after suffering a knee injury against Green Bay as well as Earl Wolff who will most likely not play this week. The Eagles must keep a QB spy on RG3 like they did on Pryor which gave the defense big success in stopping Pryor. With Kendricks in it will be big, but if he can't go Naji Goode will have to take over as the spy. Or of course that Demeco Ryans guy does it. Stopping RG3 running will help the line keep Alfred Morris in check. Morris has been big this year averaging 5.4 yards per carry. As for the offense, the Redskins secondary is bad folks really bad. Foles needs to continue to push the ball down field, this will then open up the field for Lesean McCoy and the running game.
Jason Peters is also day to day and is questionable for Sundays match.

Prediction: Eagles 31-21 Redskins

Wednesday, November 6, 2013

The Whole Eagles Jazz

I am back. I apologize for the lack of writing the past two games but lets get right back into the Eagles talk shall we?! Well lets start first with that terrible Giants game that consisted of reassuring everyone that Matt Barkley is not the answer for the future quarterback. That brings up an interesting point that we shall get back to later. As for the Giants game it brought a major concern to Eagles fans everywhere as the offense was completely shut out for the second time in two weeks....well that offense absolutely blew up in week 9 against the Oakland Raiders! Michael Vick's hamstring was bothering him too much to finish the Giants game which brought Nick Foles back to starting against the Raiders. Not only did he take advantage of his opportunity but he set records. Throwing more touchdowns than in completions in one game is a big time performance, well Nick Foles tied the NFL record for most passing touchdowns in a game with 7. He completely shattered the Raiders coverage and ran the fast paced offense better than we have ever seen yet. I won't get into the whole "Is Nick Foles the Future QB" jazz yet as the future is very uncertain. Lets just focus on Foles taking out the Packers this week and getting back to .500. Riley Cooper blew up as well Sunday scoring 3 touchdowns on Raiders first round pick DJ Hayden. After starting off slow early in the year Cooper has emerged as a go to guy since Nick Foles has taken the rains of the offense. Desean Jackson had 150 yards and 1 touchdown putting him at 823 yds and 6 touchdowns on the year, this is on pace to break the Eagles all time receiving yards record owned by former WR stud Mike Quick. Chip Kelly is a genius when it comes to using Desean. Jackson struggled the final two seasons with Andy Reid. I feel this was because they had him at such a one dimensional role. Chip is using screens, reverses, punt returning, and taking advantage of deep balls in order to keep Desean hapy go lucky #10! Lesean McCoy is still the league leading rusher and had a receiving td off a screen, I don't know if anybody else has noticed but the Eagles rock the hell out of the screen plays. As for the defense, it has improved dramatically over the past 3 weeks. Yes the offense sucked vs the Cowboys and Giants, but that defense was unstoppable thanks to the outstanding play of the young front 7, and those nasty linebackers in Mychal Kendricks and Demeco Ryans who are having monster years. Cedric Thorton, Vinny Curry, Bennie Logan, Fletcher Cox have all developed very nicely in Billy Davis's scheme. Curry and Bennie Logan lead the team with 3.0 sacks and are nightmares against the run. I told you to RELEASE CURRY (Not release as in drop but get him on the field!). Next up is the Aaron Rogerless Green Bay Packers who will be starting Seneca Wallace....good luck! Nick Foles and the Eagles look to tie up the NFC East race with a win and a loss to the Saints for the Cowboys.

Prediction
Eagles 28-14 Packers