Eagles vs Giants Sunday Night Showdown

The Eagles are in a huge matchup Sunday night against the New York Giants tomorrow night as it is a special night, Former Saftie Brian Dawkins Jersey will be retired tomorrow night. Vick is in a must perform well situation, he needs to limit the turnovers...I know you Eagles fans have heard that for the past 2 years but they do also they need to run the football more with Lesean McCoy who only rushed a total of 13 times last week which is unacceptable when you have one of the best football players in the NFL today. King Dunlap will be out and Demetress Bell will get the start and this is a big game for him, if he can play well he can beat out Dunlap since the Eagles brought him in to start in the first place. As for the defense Hakeem Knicks will not be playing which is a plus for the secondary but they still need to focus in on Ramsees Barden who had a monster game last thursday night racking up over 100 yards receiving. For me I believe you put DRC on Victor Cruz the whole game even if he is in the slot. The Eagles last week made the mistake of putting Boykin on Fitzgerald when he was in the slot, to me Nnamdi should have been on him the whole time no matter where he is. That is what they need to do this week keep DRC on Cruz the whole game and have Nnamdi take Barden and maybe even Tight End Martellus Bennett some of the time.

Prediction: I think the Eagles will take this one in a close game 20-17 at home with the crowd pumped about Dawkins jersey retirement and much more.

Eagles dominated by Cardinals 27-6

Wow....Most Eagles fans did not have much to say positive about this game as the Eagles got beat in all aspects of this game as Vick and the offense again struggling to keep the ball on their side as 2 more turnovers came back to haunt the Eagles which were both Vick fumbles also Damaris Johnson turned over a fumble on a punt return. So now the Eagles sit at the top with the Cowboys and Giants at 2-1 and the Eagles are facing a tough tough test this Sunday night when they take on the rival superbowl champs the New York Football Giants. Eli and the Giants are coming off a big win Thursday night when they dominated the Panthers so to me if the Eagles want to win this game they need to take note of what the Giants did to Cam Newton and try not to let that happen to Vick in this one or you might be hearing the Nick Foles chants and a controversy maybe after another poor performance. Thats the big topic this week on most websites is that would Andy Reid consider putting in Nick Foles? I personally think so if the situation is right, he has shown he has done that in the past sitting Mcnabb against the Ravens putting in young Kevin Kolb who shined. Moving  back to the Cardinals game what went wrong in this one? Well obliviously you have the turnovers that somehow need to stop, my biggest issue was that the Eagles have one of the best running backs in Lesean McCoy and yet they ran him only 13 times??? How can that possibly be the case when Vick was clearly struggling to throw the football. The Eagles to me just need to forget this game but remember again how the turnovers are haunting them. Kevin Kolb looked very impressive against the Eagles throwing for over 200 yards and a touchdown which left a bitter taste in the Eagles mouth as Kolb was as people know our "Quarterback of the future".

The Eagles take on the Giants Sunday Night at Lincoln Financial Field and they need to come out with a much need W in this one.

Battle of 2-0s: Eagles@ Cardinals

The Eagles travel to the dessert this week as they go against the 2-0 Arizona Cardinals who are starting a familiar face to the Eagles. Quarterback Kevin Kolb will start Sunday as John Skelton has a injured ankle and will miss some time. The Eagles have not been successful against the Cardinals with Andy Reid as coach as they have a losing record to them including last years crucial loss when Vick broke his ribs and the Eagles lost a fourth quarter lead and went on to lose 21-17.  This year the game has a bit bigger story line as Kolb starts vs his former team. Last year he was injured so Skelton started the game.

The keys for the Eagles defense: To stop Kolb is to apply pressure in the inside and force him to roll right which he has a bad habit of doing. When Kolb sees pressure he just seems to freak out and not make the right decisions for example last week I was watching the film of Cardinals @ Patriots and when the Pats had pressure Kolb, instead of stepping up in the pocket and making a throw he tried to extend the play by rolling which made him lose sight of half the field resulting in Kolb just throwing it away and taking a unnecessary hit. If Asomugha can stop Fitzgerald the Cardinals will pretty much have no way of scoring. I believe the Eagles should and will double up Fitz all day most likely putting Nnamdi on him and having Allen take him deep as well. Will Rogers-Cromartie take his former teammate Sunday? That is something to think about, DRC covered Fitz most practices when he was a member of the Cardinals so he knows him well but I still think that Nnamdi is the more aggressive corner who can shut him down. As for the Eagles offense STOP THE TURNOVERS, they have 9 TOs in 2 games. If they protect the ball and run the ball efficiently they should be ok. You just have to be able to solve the Cardinals blitz packages as they disguise them a lot with zone blitzes so the O-Line has a tough test Sunday going up against guys like Darnell Dockett and Calais Cambell.

Key Matchup: Center Dallas Reynolds vs DT/DE Darnell Dockett- Reynolds is coming into the starting lineup for injured Jason Kelce who will miss the remainder of the season with a knee injurie. Reynolds will need to protect Vick from one of the best pass rushers in the game today in Dockett. This will be Reynolds first start of his career so its very important that he does not let Dockett get to Vick early, if he can hold him long enough for Vick to get the ball out he should be fine but its a big match up for his first game.

Prediction: I believe the Eagles will take this one in another nail biting game 21-17

The Eagles take on the Cardinals at Phoenix U Stadium at 4:05 ET on Sunday.

Philadelphia Eagles vs Baltimore Ravens Week 2 Preview

The 1-0 Eagles will take on the 1-0 Ravens in a huge game at 1:00 ET now this game is a game that will have many story lines such as will Vick have a bounce back game? Also how will the Eagles respond to the Ravens no huddle offense and can the D have another stellar performance. Now I know that most people are picking the Ravens to defeat the Eagles based on Vick's performance last week and on how well the Ravens played overall against the Bengals on Monday night but I wouldn't sleep on the Eagles this week and here is why I pick the Eagles to win this game.

1. Michael Vick will have a bounce back game- Vick is most likely not going to throw four interceptions again against the Ravens and the Ravens struggled against mobile quarterbacks last season so if Vick can move the pocket it will make the Ravens struggle to get after Vick which means he will have more time to throw the football. Vick knows that if he does not perform well in this one you will be hearing the Foles chants at the Linc.

2. The Eagles defense will have another stellar performance- Yes the Ravens offense looked unstoppable last week but I saw a completely different Eagles defense last week, one that the cornerbacks and safeties were unstoppable. Asomugha let only one completion on him the entire game and Rogers-Cromartie racked up 2 interceptions. Kurt Coleman had a pair of picks as well and Nate Allen was all over the field making big tackles against the run and in pass coverage. What I saw though that was amazing was the play of linebackers Demeco Ryans and Mychal Kendricks. Ryans had over 6 tackles and would not allow Richardson to have more than a yard a gain. He was plugging up every hole possible by either beating the lineman or moving the lineman into the hole causing the back to be plugged up.

3. Eagles will become more balanced early in the game on offense- McCoy only had about 7 carries in the first half compared to the Eagles throwing the ball about 30 times. The Eagles know that if they make Vick throw that many times again he is bound to make mistakes so to stop that give McCoy the ball and let him do what he does. He had over 100 rushing last game after a stellar second half where he had 19 carries.

A question that was brought up by Adam Caplan on philadelphiaeagles.com was that when Boldin is moved in the inside and Jacoby Jones is on the outside, where will Boykin go? In my opinion and in most others Boykin is not big enough to cover Boldin the whole game, Bold is a tough, hard, fast runner so to me this is what you do, you move Asomugha into the slot, push Curtis Marsh out to the outside and have him cover Jacoby Jones. What you do with Boykin is when Boldin is moved to the outside then put Boykin back in the slot.
Injury Report: Not good news for the Eagles as Desean Jackson (Hamstring) is questionable for the game as well as Jeremy Maclin who has a hip flexer. The Eagles signed Mardy Gilyard to fill that void encase neither can go.

My prediction for the game is the Eagles win 24-21 in a big game which puts the Eagles at 2-0.

Eagles Hang on defeat Browns 17-16 in Opener

Ok you can all stop biting your nails and pulling out your hair the Eagles pulled out a wild victory against the Cleveland Browns 17-16. Boy did nobody see this coming the Browns defense was all over Vick all day forcing him to throw 4 interceptions to only two touchdowns. Thankfully the Eagles defense was stellar as they had 4 INTS of their own 2 of which were Coleman and two were Rogers-Cromartie. All though the Eagles only got 2 sacks they applied tremendous pressure on Weeden forcing him to made bad decisions. The D also held Richardson to only 39 yards total rushing so the Browns offense could not generate much. The Eagles only scored one touchdown in the first half which was a late touchdown in the second quarter where Vick threw a bullet to Maclin who made a nice toe touch catch in the end zone. So the half was over and the score was 10-6 not bad considering how the Eagles started, I then thought to myself like most Eagles fans did "OK they started off slow but now are in a rhythm lets put these Browns away." That just never seemed to happen though, Late in the fourth quarter Vick was again picked by LB D'qwell Jackson who took it in for a score. So the Eagles with 6 minutes left are down by 6 and most people at that time figured it was probably over with the way Vick was playing but oh no that was not the case. Vick and the offense remained poised and led a tremendous 91 yard drive and Vick finished it off with a touchdown to Clay Harbor to win the game. The Eagles got lucky on the play before the score though, Vick threw a pass to Maclin that went right through the hands of the Browns defender. So we caught a brake and Vick made them pay. The bright side of this game is obliviously that we are 1-0 but it took too much to get it. If the Eagles want to beat the Ravens Vick has to improve and I mean HAS TO improve because that kind of game again next week will not get the Eagles a W oh no not with the Ravens offense and defense. Two things that I liked the most of the game was that first we were efficient in the red zone which the Eagles were terrible at last season. We went 2-2 in the red zone with two scores. The second thing is that the Eagles were able to put together a fourth quarter comeback which last years team would not have been able to do. The Eagles showed that they can pull through in clutch time which we did not do last year. So for now the Eagles are 1-0 which was a important win since the Cowboys and the Redskins both won their games this week.

The Eagles take on the Ravens next week at 1 in Philly. The Eagles will have the crowd on their side and if they want to win again Vick needs to have a better game meaning NO TURNOVERS.

Season Opener Week 1: Eagles @ Browns Preview

Aah the sweet smell of football. It is here and the Eagles start it off against a young hungry Cleveland Browns team. The Eagles played the Browns in week 3 of the preseason so they are not strangers to each other this year. Since there was no game plan shown we will most likely see two very different teams energy wise and scheme wise.

Key Players Injury Update

Trent Richardson is still a question mark as he was limited again in practice this week.  

Joe Haden is going to play even though he was not hurt he could have been suspended by the league for substance abuse. 

Eagles DT Fletcher Cox was limited in practice Thursday but he should be a go for the opener and he will play a big part as he is starting with Landri as well rotating in.

Jason Babin practiced all this week so he should be a go as well against the Browns but don't expect a 3 sack performance as Philip Hunt, Tapp, and Graham will come in the rotation as well so they don't rush Babin into the swing of things. 

Keys To The Game

It is going to be a loud crowd in Cleveland Sunday so for me what the Eagles need to do is get a couple quick stops on defense with 3 and outs then slow the tempo on offense, run the ball efficiently, and get the ball out of Vick's hands. That last point brings me to my next point, the Eagles in order to get the ball out of Vick's hands fast is run some screens to McCoy and run some quick routes with Maclin, Avant, and Jackson and let them make plays after the catch. I was thinking to myself today about how QBs check down to the running back but for Vick his check down should be to run, yes I said run because as much as fans want Vick to get the ball out I do as well but not all the time we need to set certain plays aside where Vick can have the option to take the ball and run because with his talent we can't always keep him cooped up in the pocket. So the final keys are to run the ball efficiently, get off the field as quick as possible on defense, get the ball out of Vick's hands when passing but set aside certain plays for him to run with the ball. 

Prediction

The Eagles are going to get business done Sunday both offensively and defensively with a final score of 24-14 and Vick stays healthy and ready for Week 2.

The Eagles take on the Browns at 1:00 on Sunday on FOX.