Eagles-Chiefs: The Morning After
The Philadelphia Daily News - Eagletarian
Eagles-Chiefs: The Morning After
Daily News staff
TALKING POINTS
What we are talking about after the Eagles’ victory over the Kansas City Chiefs:
1. The real McCoy. With Brian Westbrook resting his sore right ankle, rookie Shady McCoy got his first start and proved again that the Eagles aren’t going to need 25 touches a game from Westbrook this season to win.
2. A confidence-builder for Kolb. With Donovan McNabb expected back after the bye, Kevin Kolb is headed back to the bench. But his impressive 327-yard, 2-touchdown, zero-interception performance against the Chiefs provided him a shot of much-needed confidence in the event something happens to McNabb down the road.
3. Brent the beast. Tight end Brent Celek had another monster game, catching 8 passes for 104 yards and a TD. The guy everybody thought wasn’t good enough to be a starter is on a 117-catch, 1306-yard, 10-touchdown pace.
4. How much of the Wildcat is too much? Mike Vick was on the field for 11 of the Eagles’ 63 plays Sunday, throwing two passes (both incompletions) and running the ball once (for seven yards). The offense also ran the Wildcat 6 other times without Vick on the field. That’s 27 percent of their total offensive plays.
5. We stil l don’t know about the defense. After getting sliced and diced by Drew Brees and the Saints last week, the Eagles defense played much better Sunday, holding the Chiefs to 11 first downs, 196 net yards and 0-for-11 on third down. But this was one bad offense. So are the offenses of their next 3 opponents – Tampa Bay, Oakland and Washington. We’re not going to have a good feel for this defense until after they face the Giants on November 1.
-- Paul Domowitch
5 NUMBERS TO PONDER
1. Since 2000, the Eagles are 70-13-1 when they hold their opponent to 17 points or less. They are 2-0 this season.
2. The Eagles didn’t give up a sack against the Chiefs and have allowed just four in the first three games. Last year, they had given up seven at this point.
3. In their last seven games, the Eagles have given up 793 rushing yards on 202 carries, an average of 3.9 yards per carry.
4. After forcing seven turnovers in their Week 1 win v. Carolina, the Eagles have just two takeaways in their last two games.
5. David Akers who booted 29- and 38-yard field goals Sunday, has converted 21 of 24 attempts in his last nine games. He’s 6-for-8 from 40-49 yards and 3-for-4 from 50-plus in those 9 games.
-- Paul Domowitch
VIEW ON THE WILDCAT
Perhaps the best view on all this Wildcat madness comes from Kansas City free safety Jarrad Page:
"You can’t expect the wildcat or any other thing to be the meat of their offense. They do what they do. Those are a couple of little wrinkles in there. That’s not going to be what they’re going to do to you all day. They came out and ran what they ran. They ran their offense, and we didn’t do a very good job of stopping them."
UPCOMING
Andy Reid has not announced a schedule, but if form holds, the players will have this week off and retun for a short practice next Monday, have Tuesday off and then resume normal game week preparations for Tampa Bay.
In case you were wondering, the Eagles' next three opponents -- Tampa Bay, Oakland and Washington -- are a combined 2-7 thus far. The Bucs have the second-worst point differential in the NFL, having been outscored by 50 points this season. Only Cleveland, at 66 is worse.
The Bucs play at Washington next Sunday.
TOUGH TOWN
There is much dismay in Kansas City about the Chiefs, losers of 26 of their last 28 and six in a row. Kansas City Star columnist Jason Whitlock did not pull any punches with today's column. Here is an excerpt:
"Right now, Todd Haley and Scott Egoli are in way over their heads. They’ve taken the scraps Herm Edwards and Carl Peterson left, supported them with spare parts from New England, emasculated them with intimidation tactics that allegedly foster a culture of winning and created a team far worse than anything we’ve seen represent our city.
A culture of winning? Can you build one when you run the ball on 10 of 11 plays while trailing 27-7 in the third quarter?
Haley treated the second half like an exhibition game. He wasn’t playing to win. He was playing to avoid further embarrassment."
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To read Domo's report card, click here.
Sam Donnellon chats Eagles at 1:30 p.m. on philly.com
Comment removed.
Jackson's TD celebration - Best Ever! He nailed the landing!— Super5- Comment removed.
- Actually, I think we DID learn something about the defense, and I hope Coach McDermott did, too - as long as we stay aggressive and play OUR brand of defense, regardless of the team we're playing, this D can make plays. The problem last week was that we got so spooked by Brees' ability to get the ball out quickly against blitzes that we abandonded the style of defense this team is built to play, and we paid for it.— JLB
- We learned that this team can beat bad teams. Of course, that's what good teams do (Giants v bucs). Beating bad teams is usually enough to get you in the playoffs and certainly enough to get us off to a good start before we face the Giants.— dreinterests
- Comment removed.
- JLB good call - the defense has four weeks to get the ball rolling and get used to destroying quarterbacks before we play a real offensive line with a real QB and running back behind it. McDermott must continue to throw the house at the QB in the first quarter, especially after points. That's where they screwed up the Saints game - instead of playing high voltage defense right after scoring, they decided to take on Brees in a shootout....with Kolb. No good. This team should be 5 - 1 coming home to host the Ginas...and by "host" I mean fracture Elis wussy face!!!— dr.elektrika
- Lonewolf, I understand you hate McNabb but it was KANSAS CITY. They have a decent nose tackle, Vrable is a shell of what he once was and the rest of the defense stinks to the point of saying that at least 3 of their starters should not be in the NFL. Kolb is getting more comfortable in the pocket but when things break down he still panics. A perfect example was the 4th and one play where he seemed to drop down to a side arm delivery which is never a good sign.— rvb2321
- Great game, great win but it's only the Cheifs thats like kicking a poodle [no offence to Mike] We need this defence to play well against the Giants,Chargers,and Cowgirls. Thank God it's Tampa after the by week. GO EAGLES— igglebob
- I'm just happy Andy Reid found a way to put his players in a better position to win, so that I didn't have to listen to another stale press conference after a loss.— Voytas
- Domo, when you say Everyone thought Celek wasn't good enough to start...You meant sportswriters right? I know a lot of people that thought he was really good after seeing his performance the end of last year. You should asterik that so everyone knows.— subsonickharma
- Statistics that are based upon points are absolutely meaningless. For example - the statistic above states: "Since 2000, the Eagles are 70-13-1 when they hold their opponent to 17 points or less. They are 2-0 this season.". Wow, now that is revealing - If you hold your opponents score down, you have a good chance of winning. I always thought that there may be some very hidden, obscure correlation between the score and who wins the game. I bet when the Egales hold there opponents to 10 points or less, there win percentage is even better, and when they themselves score over 40, it is probably darned good too. The coaches should use this secret knowledge to help the team win, by letting the team know if they score alot of points, and prevent the other team from scoring - they have a heck of a chance of winning the game. Brilliant!— Bobphxville
- Who's everybody? I've always thought celek had great potential.— duder
- Jason Peters is the beast. Not too many DEs want any piece of that dude. Cole and MJG, playing for big contracts, here or somewhere else. And it appears the human turnstile, with Juan and a little hard work and determination ha redeemed himself. KK has proven he can play, no more no less and he should be proud. Wolf, who is your starter against the Bucs ?— oldBird
- I heard Jason Whitlock is mad because Pioli revoked his access pass to the locker room. I guess Carl Peterson was nicer to Whitlock and in exchange Whitlock didn't rip on him for not winning a superbowl for 20 years.— Voytas
