Archive: January, 2010
Les Bowen, Daily News Staff Writer
The Eagles wrapped up formal preparations for Saturday's Wild Card round playoff visit to Dallas, a short week in which the challenges were obvious, after Sunday's 24-0 loss to the Cowboys.
"We've gone back and we've analyzed the mistakes we made, and the players have worked hard on correcting them, as have the coaches," Andy Reid said Thursday. "They've been upbeat. These are competitive guys. They don't like what took place last week and so they get back to business and try to right the wrong. That's how they approach it."
Reid got a little testy when a questioner implied that running the ball might keep the Cowboys' offense off the field (and give the Eagles' offense some rhythm).
Les Bowen and Daily News staff
While they might be a bit skewed by Sunday's 24-0 debacle, the numbers say the Eagles' offense has struggled mightily in the two losses against Dallas when compared to the other 14 games.
Consider:
* The Eagles averaged 8 points per game in the two games against Dallas; 29.5 in their other 14 games.
Daily News staff
UPDATED: DeSean Jackson said Tuesday he has discussed with Donovan McNabb what McNabb said after Snday's game, when McNabb was asked whether the Eagles showed their youth.
"Not necessarily," Jackson said, when asked if he'd been upset by McNabb's comments. "He made a comment, whatever his comment was about, I didn't hear the question that he was asked. But we talked, and you know, it's nothing big. We just have to keep it in-house and stick together as a team and don't let things like that break us up. We talked about it, cleared it up, and it's all right."
In other breaking Eagles news, a league source confirmed that Eagles general manager Tom Heckert is to travel to Cleveland tonight to interview for a similar position. The Browns just hired Mike Holmgren, Andy Reid's mentor, to run their operation. Hard to say how much personnel autonomy Heckert would have there; Reid said recently he thought the time had come for Heckert to get the chance to run his own shop, which he said was why the Birds have seemed less ardent about keeping Heckert than they were several years back when job openings would come up.
Paul Domowitch, Daily News NFL Columnist
Domo: Eagles-Cowboys Second Take
After-Thoughts
* Last year, strong safety Quintin Mikell had the best season of his career. Played so well and was such a key to the Eagles’ defensive success last season that I put him on my All-Pro ballot, ahead of Troy Polamalu. This year, though, Mikell has struggled. The departure of Brian Dawkins has affected Mikell’s play more than anybody else on the defense. With neither Macho Harris nor Sean Jones adequately filling the void left by Dawkins, Mikell often seems to be trying to play two positions at once, and his play has suffered. Dawkins wasn’t the player he once was. But when he was back there, the four members of the Eagles’ secondary played like one. This year, that hasn’t been the case, which is what happens when you don’t have complete trust in the guy that’s lining up next to you.
* There was more to Patrick Crayton’s 9-yard second-quarter touchdown pass than it seemed. At first glance, it looked like cornerback Sheldon Brown simply got beat by Crayton. But actually, it was a busted coverage. By whom isn’t exactly clear. The Cowboys ran Roy Williams, who had lined up in the slot on the same side as Crayton, on an underneath route. Brown expected nickel corner Joselio Hanson to go with Williams. But he stayed inside, leaving Williams wide open. Brown took a step toward Williams, which allowed Crayton to get behind him for the touchdown. Who’s to blame? Brown for losing track of Crayton? Hanson for not picking up Williams, which caused Brown to lose track of Crayton? Or strong safety Quintin Mikell for not sliding over and picking up Crayton? Hard to say. But it wasn’t a simple case of Brown getting beat.
Daily News staff
The theme of Andy Reid’s day-after news conference was “no excuses” as the coach looked back on the Eagles’ 24-0 shutout loss to Dallas and looked ahead to Saturday’s NFC wild-card game against those same Cowboys.
“There are no excuses for anything here,” Reid said. “We’ve got to do a better job of putting our players in the right position and our players have to do a better executing. We’ve been doing a pretty good job to this point. I’m not going to can all that and make a lot of changes. We just have to do better.”
Reid also repeated often that the problems the Eagles had are things that can be corrected.
Daily News staff
TALKING POINTS
What we're talking about inthe aftermath of the Eagles' 24-0 shutout loss to the Dallas Cowboys:
1. To Your Health: Asante Samuel whiffed trying to jump a route on the 10-yard TD pass to Jason Witten that finished the Cowboys’ opening drive, but Samuel used the same risky technique and tipped the pass to Patrick Crayton that Joselio Hanson intercepted to thwart a second long drive … then got burned again against Miles Austin on a 40-yard gainer.
Jonathan Tannenwald
Join Daily News Executive Sports Editor Josh Barnett for a live chat about the Eagles' 24-0 loss to the Cowboys at 1:30 p.m. Monday.
Daily News staff
The NFL just released a full playoff schedule for next week.
The Eagles will face the Cowboys next Saturday at 8 p.m. in the second game of the NBC doubleheader. Houston or the Jets will face Cincinnati at 4:30 on NBC in the first game.
Al Michaels (play-by-play), Cris Collinsworth (analyst) and Andrea Kremer (sideline reporter) will call the action from Cowboys Stadium. Tom Hammond (play-by-play), Joe Gibbs (analyst), Joe Theismann (analyst) and Tiki Barber (sideline reporter) will call the action from Cincinnati.
Paul Domowitch, Daily News NFL Columnist
RUSHING OFFENSE
Playing catchup the entire game, the Eagles ran the ball a season-low 10 times. Their 37 rushing yards was their second lowest output of the season (29 vs. Chargers). Brian Westbrook, LeSean McCoy and Leonard Weaver combined for just 23 yards on seven carries. Grade: D
PASSING OFFENSE
Donovan McNabb was sacked four times and failed to throw a touchdown pass for the first time in 11 games. His receivers dropped at least a half-dozen passes and the protection from his makeshift line was spotty. Grade: D
RUN DEFENSE
