Wasted opportunity for Eagles
The Eagles wasted an opportunity, blowing a lead in the second half and falling to the Titans, 37-19, on Sunday afternoon.
With 5:51 left in the third quarter, the Eagles had a 1st-and-goal from the Titans' 3-yard line, leading 16-7.
Kevin Kolb handed the ball off to LeSean McCoy, but the play was disrupted by Titans defensive tackle Jason Jones, who burst through the offensive line untouched and forced a fumble. Tennessee recovered, and never looked back, outscoring the Eagles, 30-3 and coming back for a 36-19 victory.
Jones fired through the gap between right guard Max Jean-Gilles and center Mike McGlynn.
Once the Titans got the ball back, they fired time and again to wide receiver Kenny Britt, who killed the Eagles with seven catches for 225 yards and three touchdowns. Britt did not even start after he was involved in a bar fight last week. I'll have to go back and look more closely, but it appeared that Ellis Hobbs and Nate Allen were the two most responsible for allowing Britt to hit big plays.
He had catches of 26, 34, 80, 42 and 21 yards.
The Eagles limited Chris Johnson to 66 yards on 24 carries (2.8 yards per carry average). But they gave up big play after big play in the passing game.
Here are some other observations:
* The Eagles' defense had three takeaways, and the offense scored zero points off of them.
* Kevin Kolb finished 26-for-48 for 231 yards, a touchdown and two interceptions.
* The Eagles receivers did a good job picking up the slack for DeSean Jackson. Jeremy Maclin had five catches for 42 yards; Jason Avant had six for 60; and Riley Cooper had three for 51.
* Quintin Mikell had an interception, a forced fumble and a sack.
* Kerry Collins had thrown two interceptions in 375 attempts against the Eagles coming into today. He was picked off twice in 31 attempts in this one.
* Jorrick Calvin had a crucial fumble on a punt return late in the fourth quarter. The Eagles would have had a chance to score and tie the game with a 2-point conversion.
* The Eagles are 4-3 heading into their bye week. They get the Colts at home in Week 9.
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