Eagles pass messy first test
Eagles 31, Rams, 13
Eagles pass messy first test
Rich Hofmann, Daily News Sports Columnist
LeSean McCoy scores on a seven yard touchdown reception in the first half. (Yong Kim/Staff Photographer)
ST. LOUIS -- First weeks in the NFL season are, by their very nature, untidy. First weeks after off-seasons interrupted by lockouts, as it turns out, are something worse than untidy. But even amid the clutter of their 31-13 victory over the Rams on Sunday, it was possible to see why the Eagles entered this season with a realistic hope of making a long run into January.
Yes, the offensive line, tight ends and running backs had their hands more than full dealing with the blitzing pressure of the Rams' defense. Quarterback Michael Vick was hit too often. Especially early on, the whole operation left people filled with the same dread that they had been embracing all summer, a dread that multiplied when the team began switching everybody's position in the last 2 weeks.
But here is the thing: it did get better as the game went on. The same could be said for a run defense that was gashed for a 47-yard Steven Jackson touchdown on the Rams' first play from scrimmage. All of the summer's worst fears were realized in that moment, and in the next couple of drives -- but then, like the offensive line, it pulled itself together as the game wore on. Of course, it helped that Jackson suffered a quad injury on the game's second series.
DeSean Jackson? Yes, he dropped what should have been an 88-yard touchdown pass. But he also caught 6 balls for 102 yards and a touchdown.
Vick? Yes, he was hit too often. And, yes, he made some head-scratching throws. But he also countered the Rams' blitz with his legs, sometimes to devastating effect; 8 carries and 100 yards before a couple of clock-killing kneel-downs at the end of the game. And on the touchdown pass to Jackson in the third quarter, Vick made the kind of throw that pretty much nobody else in the NFL can make -- scrambling to his left, presssure in his face, falling backward, he still got the ball to Jackson accurately, on time and with enough oomph. It really was a beauty.
Shady McCoy was excellent running the ball -- 15 carries, 122 yards and a touchdown (plus another receiving TD). On the other side of the ball, the Eagles' front four pass rush was consistent and consistently punishing. They finished the game with five sacks, two by Jason Babin.
So it was all on display, the good and the bad, all of it wrapped around the general messiness of this partticular opening game. There was plenty of fuel for both the optimists and the skeptics to feed their arguments for another week. But in the end, the skeptics are trailing, 1-0.
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Buy Eagles tickets Comments (85)
AR gave Watkins a solid benching. Matthews needs the same. Rolle/Chaney and anyone else please.— oldBird
Comment removed.- Comment removed.
- I find it funny that folks who tell the truth about the Birds are haters. It doesn't matter how long you have been a fan or if you have been right all these years, if you don't blow sunshine and happiness all around you are a hater. The FACTS Birds fans are this, for the last 11 years the Birds haven't done anything except end up in 2nd place, like everyone else. The FACTS Birds fans are the Birds beat a very, very beatable Rams team that dropped passes and lost it's best offensive player on the 2nd offensive series. Now so far my side has been right a helluva lot more than the sunshine and drug side. See I use common sense and my brain, not my heart. What I saw on Thursday and what I saw on Sunday were completely different levels of football. The Birds will get better, but like I said before, what happens sunshine and drugs fans if the Packers and Saints do too?— golson@florida
- There was nothing in this game to make things that much better. WOW the Rams Jackson goes down and the Eagles run defense gets better. That is fantastic. Now if the 1st string running back from every team the Eagles face can only somehow not play after the 2nd series that D is in great shape. How about those 8, 9, 10 dropped passes by the Rams wideouts. It was a good road win against a team that should win 6 maybe 7 games this year. This team better get a whole lot better because if it had played the Saints or Packers this game would have been over in the 1st half. That is what this is all about anyway. It isn't about getting good enough to lose in the playoffs this year and that is what it looks like will happen. If anyone looked at what happened on Thursday and then watched the Sunday game the difference was huge. It was like watching Division I and Division II College. The Birds need a hell of a lot of improvement to reach the Saints - Packer level. Besides what happens if the Packers and Saints get better as the season goes along also?— golson@florida
- Everything will be great UNTIL post season!!!! Then the wheel will come off the wagon like it always does.......— whatzsup2003
- HA! HA! I noticed that as well TimO— essell
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- Saints defense got torched. GB's defense got torched (Clay Matthews
played well enough to get 1 tackle). Steelers defense got torched. Atlanta's defense got torched.
Eagles defense gives up 13 points, 5 sacks, defensive TD. Yesterday the whiners were predicting a loss. Now they're making excuses for the Rams.— bleedgreen 
Tyrone7-Since you want to cut all of the "Pretty Hair Boys" don't you think Asante Samuels has pretty hair too. Cut him?— Kioto- LOL, now Al Harris, HE had pretty hair! ;-) — KNuff
- No OTA's + Short Camp + Non Hitting Camp = Sloppy football for the first month or so. Did you see any other games? Sloppy too. The O-Line and defense played better as the game went along, that's a plus. 31-13 and played sloppy, not bad when you think about it. Mike Vick = Amazing. That line has GOT to keep him healthy.— Craig321
- Lets Eat-Next to Mike Vick, Cam Newton best QB in NFL. What you gonna say when Cards get fed up with your boy Klob and sign David Garrad or even Jarmacus. Matthews need to get cut tomorow. The other pretty hair boy Riley Cooper sat the bench all day. Cut him too.— Tyrone7
- The offensive line and linebackers should sort themselves out as the groups gets more reps together. Ideally...— balitok
- I'm happy the Eagles won. I saw some good things. The run game was slow to develop but was great at the end. Vick played pretty well. The Oline started out terrible but got better as the game went on (although STL stopped blitzing). The wide receivers were pretty good too (minus the Djax drop). The Dline got some really good pressure. But now for the bad. The ALL-TIME secondary did not look great at all. The Rams receivers were open all day, but fortunately they had a bad case of the drops. The front seven couldn't stop the run at all. I'm not sure why the Rams stopped running the ball. I think I saw only a handful of plays where the Rams didn't gain positive yards on a run. It was stupid of them to stop running. The Rams losing Steven Jackson was HUGE also. And now to the linebackers. Atrocious. Especially Matthews. Whatever tackles he made were 8 yards or more down the field. He was lost most of the time. On draft day, I was screaming at the TV for the Eagles to take Matthews. When they actually did, I was so pumped. I'm still glad they have him. HE'S JUST NOT READY TO START. Also, this may seem silly, but he should really cut his hair. It's one of those things where if you are good then you can stand out by having goofy hair (Polamalu), but if you suck you shouldn't draw attention to yourself. His hair is just attracting attention to his awful play. Cut it until you are good. That's my suggestion. My other suggestion is bench Matthews, put Chaney back at MIKE (even though he wasn't great today either), and put a backup in or get a free agent to fill the other slot. Rolle looked decent in limited play. Overall, though, you have to be happy with a Week 1 road win.— Penfold18
- Is it me or did casey matthews looked lost the whole game ??? just plain horrible— phillyfanyo
- bigjay, you is spelled y-o-u. Oh is spelled o-h. Yeah, I believe you're white.
Stop pretending Vick played like Rodgers and Brees did Thursday night. If he keeps playing like that against the good teams, we are in a lot of trouble. BTW do you still McChoke?— marioP - sarah89...What in the world are you blathering about..."Vick/Eagle haters?" Hey, just enjoy the win. No need to dump on people in general after a good beginning of the season.— Tomme
- Comment removed.
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- Let's eat, come on, Kobby was supposed to be good, Cam is high high profile rookie with some notoriety in his past and some debate about whether he'd be any good in NFL or just another college star overhyped. Who cares what color he is or any one is, we're all human beings trying to get by in a sometimes tough world. Hope you can get past what ever it is that is eating at you.— Eephus
- Got to give Brig Red and his coaches credit for pulling this together. More tomorrow.— delcodanno
- we won because the rams...1. dropped a lot of passes 2. played as sloppy as we did 3. all got hurt. this win is in no way a passed test for the birds.— psualum
- they played pretty badly and still won by 18 points...— soalivetoday
- wiff, no one cares.— tpizza
- Interesting that the first-round pick this year was deactivated for the game.
Sloppy game? Yes- yet after all is said and done, not a bad effort at all.— mrjarn - ymmvary, I'm waiting for him to show. It'll be fun...for me anyway.— tpizza
- Casey Matthews..to the bench immediately.. We must do something about our linebacker situation or it will haunt us.. Vick beat the rush with his legs a half dozen times today.. McCoy showed his elusive ability today..DeSean played well too despite dropping 2 potential TDs. We can hurt Atlanta's defense too next week as we have demolished them the last 2 years..— bradco
- I think the coaching staff has done a pretty good job pulling together old and new talent.Casey Matthews may be a concern.Maybe they see something in him that will awaken with being bloodied in the trenches.If we keep winning they have the luxury of coaching him int MLB awareness.Maybe he's a talented rookie that will learn his way into his position.Maybe he will never become what they hoped for,but it's not like they have Reggie White sitting on the bench.
You have to stick with the plan for a game or two.I'm sure they are already discussing plan"B" but it will be another experiment at best.I don't think they can go back to him this year again if they pull him.
— Ernie Garman - Let's eat c'mon Cam newton broke the rookie passing yardage record! Kevin Kolb had his chance he did good but the experts know more than we do,he has Larry Fitzgerald he can't go wrong!
Let's stop the hate,I see football players not skin color!— jtad - lets eat..yeah he was the first rookie qb to throw for 422 yards in his first nfl game on the road and he happened to be black..your the only racist here..if that was daulton from the bengals he would have gotten the same type of press i bet u wouldnt have said a word about it..o yeah and im white by the way...i wish these fake eagles fans jump off the bandwagon..not every win is going to be pretty..Solomanium a team doesnt score 31 points by luck..go root for another team..miserable people on here i swear. its only a game people, win or lose life goes on— bigjay215
- I liked it when Juqua picked up the ball and stiff armed, who was it, Foku, to "get out of my way". D Line dream.— Eephus
- KOLB-300 Yards, 2 TDS, Zero INT, Wins Game. Despite that he barely gets a word from the TV media. Every network from ESPN to the NFL network only want to heap high praise on Cam Newton. The losing QB in the game. What was that said by Russ Limbaugh about the NFL wanting a black QB.— Lets Eat
- Newton, the top pick in the draft, throws for 422 yards (and a 110 QB rating) is his first game ever. He's only the sixth rookie EVER to throw for over 400 yards. He nearly leads last year's 2-win Panthers to a road upset. But somehow that SHOULDN'T get ample coverage!? For that's NOT new and unique!? See, there's where YOUR bias is revealed. — PhilaLogic
- Casey Matthews had 4 times as many tackles as big brother Clay.— bleedgreen
- one win at a time one game at a time— hannigan
- It felt like they relied more on the running game in spots than they have in the past. It actually looked they could run the ball. The O line was blowing people up on the run plays. Interesting.— djack10
- Your other favorite, The Great Donovan McNabb still stinking up the nfl.— marioP
- "Michael Vick struggled passing outside the hashmarks on Sunday, but found his comfort zone in the middle of the field" From ESPN Maybe you were watching the wrtong game.
Rich, find me 9 more games the Eagles will win.
— marioP - Go Birds!!the Rams receivers couldn't catch a Cold-LOL...Shout Outs to Kevin Kolb 300 yards passing and 130 QB RATING!! Laugh outs to Donnie McNoheart 39 yards passing-LOL..my man.....wolf.— wolf 4
- The Eagles could easily have imploded after that dismal start, but this team showed character and persevered. There were many lessons to be learned and hopefully the coaching staff and players will be ready for the stronger opponents that lie ahead. In the meantime, I am happy that that they put one in the "W" column, something that is not easy to do in this competitive league; just look at the upsets today.— bigphilphan
- I give Vick two or three games at most before he is sidelined.— RufusG
- Shady is 4real.
— NewMick314 - Solomanium obviously was not in the same STL stadium I was this afternoon, or he would have seen a sloppy Eagles first quarter turn into a beat-down of the Rams. Nobody in the Edward Jones dome even knew Jackson was hurt; and the game was already over by the time Bradford got knocked out. So what's with all the hand-wringing and bed-wetting about Castillo? The game I watched featured five Eagles sacks--one for each DE, and two for the high-$ free-agent DE; and zero passing TDs or red-zone breakdowns. So, slow down on the Kleenex and maybe tweak the anti-anxiety meds, Solomanium...it'll be OK.— Eaglesfan in IL
- Philly_Mile, a win is a win on any given Sunday, just look at the upsets today. There were plenty of people who picked the Eagles to lose today. And the Rams are not one of the worst teams in the league. If you had done your research, you would have known that many people picked the Rams to win their respected division this year. I am happy we won today. But I am not proud knowing the Eagles have a fan like in you in our fanbase. Shup up and cheer for your team to do well. Unbeliveable.— PhileaglyersFan
- You guys are clueless.
Winning by 18 points on the road is a good day. Some of you are really stupid.— sbdons1982 - Comment removed.
- A win on the road in the NFL. Nuff said.— Frosty Peters
- We being seeing what you sayin in late December.— Lets Eat
- You can tell Spags is from the Reid coaching tree. Dumb, he had Reid's dreamteam's number and changed directions. First with abandoning the run early in the game. They were getting huge chunks of yardage. Then going from no huddle to huddle and finally using the drop back coverage with 3 pass rushers. He let Reid off the hook.— Lets Eat
why is nobody talking about the real problem here?? mike vick played the air guitar!! TWICE!! he keeps that up hes a soup contract away from being a redskin lol— wcm65- The game play was spotty, but I really can't blame them with all the new additions and lack of time to gel. However, it was good to see that they improved throughout the game.— verve
- Just a quick note to let you know that I was told by the staff to stick around the home locker room and expect the call soon. Arizona already is looking for an NFL caliber QB and they know that I would be a huge improvement over the other #4.— Mike McMahon
- Get off Matthews back, haters. The kid is from a family that has made the NFL what it is. He had very little time to prepare due to the labor unrest. He will settle in after a few games and be the best LB since Bednarik if you buttheads don't ruin his confidence with your constant carping.— Paul SoTX
- Haters here are hurting is confidence? If Matthews is reading these comments, then we are in more trouble with him than originally thought. — gob1234
- You're probably just joking about the Bednarik remark, but I'll bite. Matthews is overmatched and because of his sanctified name he will at least have the chance to prove it over and over again. In the end though, he'll be quietly demoted and eventually released (preferably, from the Eagle's point of view, after some injury so they have some convenient reason other than that he was never up to the task). The Eagles were playing with ten players on defense today, and the cornerstone of any team's game-plan to attack the Philly D going forward will be that revered name on his jersey, in the middle of the field, obscured though it is by the locks of a below average NFL football player and above average narcissist. — auntesther
Where is charliegarner25?— ymmvary- refs grade an F..sweet win
— jjjimjjj - Actually as messy as it was for the Birds (Rams had 3rd and long 3 times and got the 1st down on an Eagles' penalty), it was moderately encouraging - particularly the effort of a patchwork OL.
On the other hand - as I and many others have noted - Casey Matthews is not now, and may never be, a starting MIKE in the NFL. The guy is routinely overmatched and does, indeed, look pretty lost out there.— FishFryFrank - Now then, who gonna tell me this aint the team that win the super bowl. Mike MVP just like I be sayin all along. Mike show his greatness even with that bad O-line. Next Mike goin home to Atlanta, its show time.— Tyrone7
- I'm gonna tell you this ain't the team to win the Superbowl (after over a decade with Reid you still are thinking super bowl?!). Just through comparison of the Eagle's offense against an ok Rams defense and seeing the Thursday night game. — Phillyrussian7
- shaad: Haven't you read my prediction for this game?...I wrote Eagles would win 31-20...I had this game down pat and said Vick would beat these WEAK teams like the Rams...but lose to the GOOD teams in playoffs...again....you got it now?— frank105
- I'm right here...I predicted for days that the Eagles would beat this weak Rams team 31-20....final score was 31-13, so I was very close with the actual score....Like I said here a ton of times, Vick will beat these WEAK teams to make the playoffs,...but lose to GOOD TEAMS IN THE PALYOFFS...got it now?— frank105
- Do we still have a middle linebacker?— Romus
- Did you have fun Rich, or were you in need of some anti hemorrhoid cream at halftime. Why do writers expect the impeccable when we're talking football, especially a first game.— retzlaff
- Frank105 where you at man?!! LOL It's funny what happens when Andy finally decides to run the ball 4 runs in a row = touchdown! WOW Anyway did yall see that sick vick spin move man this guy is amazing. Frank I guess your right Vick truly is sick LOL!— shaad
- perfectly summary of the game. Nice to see a win. The one thing i would add is that the first half exposed in very obvious way just how unprepared some of the eagles coaches are...and in particular how poorly Reid manages a game. Obviously we have great coaches when it comes to motivating and unifying players around solid, creative concepts. But they got a lot of work to do on the situational play calling and game management. The players looked ready (except for the linebackers). The coaches didn't.— murdock101
- Fabio— He-Hate-Me
- Is Stewart Bradley still available?— gob1234
- Kolb looks real good so far against the worst team in the league. Pretty impressive for even the clubhouse cancer.— Astro Jones
- a GREAT result for week 1. This team needs time to develop continuity. It may be 4 weeks 'til they hit full stride. Nx wk @ Atl (off blow-out loss, coming home for season home opener) could be an ugly loss. I'll just sit here and watch as the bandwagon crashes & burns following that
KING~out— thee~KING - D and O lines looked good, skill players were great, just don't undestand the run defence. Too much space between linebackers and D line. Linebackers need to be more aggresive, need to be attacking at snap of ball.— camasbud
- Nice start and it looks like McCoy is set for a huge season. Fess up Andy, Casey Mathews was a wasted draft choice. He is NO middle linebacker. He seems lost out there and is rarely in on a play. The offensive line played better in the second half.— fanup
- We were lucky to win that game. One bad play by Bradford coupled with the loss of STeven Jackson and the game was given to us. Once again Andy Reid tried his best to blow it for us, and Castillo looked thoroughly lost. I still say 10-6, wild card team, out in the 1st round at best. At worst, 6-10 and no playoffs.
- Solomanium, if you already know the Eagles' season will end, why even watch the stinkin game. You're a disgrace to call yourself an Eagles fan. When the Eagles win the superbowl, Solomanium: " Reid got lucky, Castillo got lucky, blah blah." Unbelievable. — PhileaglyersFan
- Hey, people know how the Titanic movie will end but they still watch it. The question is what excuses are you going to make when this team chokes AGAIN? — Phillyrussian7
- Reading your post I would have thought the Eagles lost. Then I realized you were only a troll. Go back under your bridge you gnome. It was a first game, more pre-season, than in season, but a reflection of all the GOOD in this sytem. I like Eagles chances. Philly is a city of champions Solomanium, not whiners. Have some cheese you mouse with your whine. — PhillyboyinNYC
- It seems that once they backed off the blitz late in the first and early in the second Vick was able to calm things down and get his game under control. It was amazing how our secondary went nearly unchallenged the whole game...compare THAT to last year.— PorkChopExpress
- Hey DooDooFresh, did you see Vick rock out some air guitar??— TimO
- Yes he did it during the post game. Was he mocking Donnie? — AlwaysSunny215
- Wow..no Vick/Eagle haters here...must all be back in the basement banging their heads!!!LOL!!!— sarah89
- Easy first improvement, get rid of Fabio.— Astro Jones
- Rich, this article pretty much sums up the game and the Eagles' prospects for a championship this season. Things can go either way in a given game, but Vick can be the X factor that determines a game's outcome, even if he is game planned for.— DontBeFooled
- give the team time to play together, and mudd some time to teach the offensive line how to play, and this team will be unstopable.
- We'll take it. They'll continue to improve...— Grazman
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