The Eagles had too many big plays on offense and defense for the Rams today, as they went to St. Louis and came away with their first win of the season 31-13.
It wasn’t a dazzling performance by quarterback Michael Vick and the Eagles passing game, but he connected enough times to help the Birds get a win. Vick missed some throws, had a few drops and didn’t ever get into a rhythm.
The Birds made their share of mistakes against the backside blitzes. Vick doesn’t seem to be able to see anything coming from his backside.
It was a nice blitz game plan by Rams head coach Steve Spagnuolo to get after Vick. He sent cornerbacks and safeties from Vick’s blindside and the Birds blocking didn’t make the adjustments to pick up the blitzer.
The offensive line wasn’t terrible but they weren’t outstanding either. I think the Eagles have to be happy about getting out of St. Louis without any terrible plays, but they need to play better.
The star of the game of the offensive side of the ball was LeSean McCoy. He gained 122 yards on only 15 carries while scoring a touchdown on the ground and one through the air. Numerous times McCoy made tacklers miss 
when he got one-on-one opportunities out in the open field.
The big plays came from the guy who usually makes them for the Birds, DeSean Jackson. The little guy caught six passes for 102 yards and a touchdown. He dropped a pass from Vick, which would have been a long touchdown, but other than that played very well.
They ran the ball 31 times for 237 yards. Of course ten of those runs were pass plays where Vick pulled the ball down and run the ball. Vick ran for 98 yards on ten attempts. I wasn’t crazy about Vick taking off all those times, but I do like the fact that he did get on the ground rather than take chances of trying to break tackles.
As expected, Eagles tight end Brent Celek spent most of his day helping out the offensive line in its pass blocking.
time clock managenent was excellent like usual. 14-32 is kind of sad and would have been picked off in that second drive against a better D,but glad Vick threw a slant today
A better team would have torched them today. Defensively, they couldn’t stop the run and every TE and RB was wide open. Offensively, the line was poor, and when it wasn’t Vick didn’t get rid of the ball.
Same ol same ol. They’re a good team, but nowhere close to Super Bowl level.
Are you even an Eagles fan? They won the game what the hell are you mad about.
did enough to get the win , we got issues and still won that is all i care about! what i like is the amount of rams leaving the field ! we were the more physical team !!! a nice way to start the season .
get brian rolle on the field instead of casey mathews
I think alot of fans want a well oiled great team not just a good team, 1 LB looked good almost got an INT
NO INJURIES
Now the Rams are a terrible team, please people ! this played out exactly how everyone said it would except we won. The run defense has ways to go, the O-Line played better as the game went on, Herremans did great for his first time at RT, Hes a keeper there, I didnt hear Jake Longs name all game, I think Jarrad Page is a beast, Were only gonna get better so just relax.
the eagles didnt play great but made enough plays to get the win….have have some issues we need to address..both the offense and defense can play way better than they did today…once the team actually gets into form they will be scary….till then I am happy we came away with a win..can’t wait till next week to beat them falcons!!!
A Win is a Win is a Win in the NFL..
For their 1st game and with all the new Players,Coaches and in particular the O/Line, the Eagles finished the 2nd half on a positive note and now have some film,and regular season game experience to go over to improve….
Fitting synopsis paul beings that you picked them to lose. Although i have to admit that if the Ram WRs caught half of what they dropped this would have been a much more difficult victory.
not sure how it amazes me, but it does… I sat here and read how people were worried about this game, and some thought they could lose. So they won, and won handily, and they always play bad week 1.
to have any complaints in basically a blowout win, is silly
One good thing about Reid’s teams is that tend to progress weekly. So, this thing could come together. We’ll see.
Kolb had a very good day and McNabb had yet another poor showing. The story lines continue, and I, for one, look forward to the final outcome.
Whose tro say if S Jackson doesn’t get hurt early on and take away the fumbe return by Parker.. I am not going to play coulda, woulda shoulda, All I am saying is that this game had the makings of a Rams Victory but they had to play error free and obviously have their horses stay helathy to play.. Chalk it up as a W and be gals that no one on the Eagle was seriously hurt, but it’s obvious that the Eagles need to improve in many areas and the final score is not indicitative that the work that is needed for this team to be a legitimate Super Bowl Contendor.. Time to heal up, watch some video to improve and get ready for GAme #2 in Atlanta next SUnday evening … (a Game that the Falcons probably need to have since they opened with a conference whooping to the Bears and probably can’t afford to go 0-2 with both losses comign against teams that they will liklely be chasing for come playoff time..)
sooo….now is it time to extend D-Jax??? Not is best game, but seriously…anyone who doesn’t see what he brings to this offense is blind!!
After watching parts of every game on TV today the Eagles LB are by far the worst in the NFL. Its not even close.
I am not going to play coulda, woulda shoulda, All I am saying is that this game had the makings of a Rams Victory paulman
cause u picked the rams thats y
i told yall pman picked rams so i dumped down on eagles today im so happy gonna be a good week thnx pman
who u like nxt week ? lmao
like i said, the eagles would put this one away easily
like gcobb, jaws, paulman, and a few other haters on this board said, the rams would beat us … here is your serving of crow people!!!
the eagles beat a “decent” rams team by playing like crap … too many penalties on defense (especially on 3rd down), awful run D throughout the game, dropped passes, and a poor run game through the first 3 qtrs … this team will catch fire as this season goes on and those 18 point victories will be more like 30 point victories and much more flawless wins
dag – Do you mean that in terms of envy – you saw LBs on other teams that you wish were Eagles? Or you mean more that Mathews Fokou and Cheney played poorly. I would have to disagree with the later if that’s the case. I think that all things considered, the LBs did not play that poorly. How much of that first play factored into your statement? I’m just curious
exactly PW, exactly what i was going to say
coulda, woulda, shoulda
stick to what happened, pretty or ugly we won comfortably
damn, wheres my damn medal? im hungry, ill settle for a cookie er sumthin
told you guys thatd id read ur comments sunday after the game
yup, exactly the comments i expected, you guys are ridiculous
we got our victory…next…
yeah, ur brainwashed if you thought this would be close, or screaming for attention. good for you slouches
time to lay the smack down on America’s darling matthew ryan, what a pussy
were pound to pound that too just like we did last yr with kolb at the helm #dome_vicktory
I have to agree that, considering the massive changes on this team, they played OK and managed to come away with a W against a team that is less talented. Like others mentioned, it could’ve been a much different game if Jackson didn’t get injured on his first and only play.
O line played better in the 2nd half than I feared they may. The linebackers, especially Matthews, have a long way to go. No point in laboring on the focus areas, everyone saw what they are and they have another week to work on it with a W in their pocket.
Good Job Birds! What counts is the W and you got that done!
yea wmonell the funny thing is we said half the ppl will call the rams garbage or say they knew we would win
histerical
but u cant listen to a carolina panther fan i’ll tell u that
Philly – good point, it’s amazing how the haters will cry foul whenever people offer alternative explanations for the teams past shortcomings by saying ‘you’re making excuses’, but when they win – they make EXCUSES! It’s funny actually
A greater defense would have …………… ah forget it, why bother commenting…….becasue i must. The Steelers got their arse handed to them by a lesser offense than the Eagles, yet a better defense would have beaten us, really.
All those that say they Keep it real, well keep it real and tell us that you did not see half of todays games playing out like they have. Maybe we might have been even better against some of the other teams, maybe worst i don’t know. What I do know that if you are crying about faults or weaknesses rightnow in the wake of a 31-13 victory, I suspect that at no time during this season will I you find comfort in our bird warriors.
People hear telling me how grand the Falcons are and we hosed them last season and they got manned today, give me a break I am done. I am a happy man for this week, thank you Eagles very much.
Both the Pack and Saints defenses got rosted, come on , be real it is what it is, they got rosted both of them, but we make excuses for them, ohhh they played the best offenses in the league.
I am sure if the Eagles played the same game against either team we would be burning our defense as scrubs and our D-coord asa bum fraud, say it aint true I dare you.
I don’t give a dang if we slip, slide dip and fumble into the playoffs and superbowl, becasue in the end the having is more important than the getting.
Who cares how you win just that you do.
as always “LONG LIVE THE EAGLES”
how much are we paying curley cue matthews to thumb his ass? I’m watching the cowgirls and I remember when we are on the board in the draft and Sean Lee was on the board and I was like ok we need a linebacker… nope… trade pick to dallas and they took him… unbelievable… we suck so hard at drafting.
runtheball – and you suck so hard at being a fan. You do realize, the point of football is to win games right?
There is no reason we shouldn’t have jeff otah, sean lee, earl thomas, and gabe carimi on this team.
schiller quit criticizing everyone and formulate your own opinion fag
Run – first of all – why the obsession with carimi? Second of all – coulda woulda shoulda, all you do is live in the past, the negative past. Third, I love the irony – you are hating on me for being critical. All you do is criticize, but when it’s your own comments that take criticism you go ‘stop’. HA – pretty funny.
And then, just to prove your true hater status, you throw in a hateful comment about a huge portion of HUMANITY.
So let’s take a tally here – you hate a bunch of things about the eagles – a very good football team that has lost 0 games this year, you hate how I post on the board, and to top it off – you hate on gay people who you don’t know.
Wow. Is there anything you like in this world other than players on teams not named the Eagles? I sure hope so, boy would life be miserable otherwise
schiller = fag
run – I’m a person, not a ‘fag’. And I happen to be a heterosexual. So by your strange comment there, you are both hateful and incorrect. Why be hateful and incorrect? What’s the gain there?
And about your coveting of those LBs and other team’s players – how are those teams with those players you covet looking? Dallas is blowing a big lead as I type this – they haven’t one more than 1 playoff game in many years. So you can wish we had this linebacker or that, but I’m happy we have the better TEAM
REVIS ISLAND BABY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1 WHOOHOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
ROMO SUCKS
Shiller honestly Matthews was so overmatched he looked like he didnt belong on an NFL field. This is no newsflash it has been this way for weeks. The Rams coulda rushed for 400 yards with Jackson. Cadillac Williams was killing us. I thank the Rams they stop running on us. Then Chaney who was a nice little player last year is terrible on the outside. He cant cover anyone and is out of position. Move him back to the middle. If you can bench Watkins your #1 then Matthews should be next.
Romo didnt pay attention to the snap of the ball, reminds me of their playoff loss to seattle Priceless!!!!!!!!!!! were 1-0 and the skins are1-0 in our division. they suck and we’ll stomp them when we play em.E-A-G-L-E-S EAGLES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! GOOD NIGHT GANG!
ha ROCKO – you posted that BEFORE he botched the snap cause he just wasn’t ready! That guy is the ULTIMATE choke artist. I can’t wait to see him v. the Washburn wide 9 and the 3 corners….ha gonna be a good time playing dallas this year.
ha, you beat me
Great win by the Birds today. It had the makings of being a major upset, especially early on when the Rams stopped us and then scored on their opening play. The Birds never let it affect them however as they slowly settled in and worked their way to an easy win. A couple of my observations as I watched in a slightly progressing drunken stupor.
– Vick got screwed out of a HUGE game with a couple plays called back by penalties and Desean with TWO drops that would have been touchdowns. Still an overall decent game from our 100 million dollar man. Bradford had some of his receivers drop balls in crucial moments as well so it all evened out.
– Shady is a beast and this team is clearly a much better run blocking team than pass blocking team at the moment.
– Anyone else notice how the o-line progressed as the game went along? Big day from Herremans as well, I was IMPRESSED. Matter of fact, I give the o-line a grade of C plus for this week. Nicely done.
– Nnamdi got tested by Bradford on that deep ball by Gibson, granted he didn’t catch it (even though they ruled that he did), but I just find it funny how teams are actually testing him like that….guess they really have no choice seeing as to who is on the other side.
– Jarrad Page has solidified himself as a decent safety in this scheme.
– Desean, if you want premiere wide receiver money, make the catches that would MAKE them pay you premiere wide receiver money. Desean had 100 yards and a td but he should have had 250 yds and 3 tds — and I’m not exaggerating.
I’m happy with the win. Yeah yea yea, I know all about the rush defense and how we started but we clamped it down. Did Steven Jackson getting hurt have an effect on that? Maybe. But it’s football and it happens. I saw a difference from the beginning of the game in which our lbers were nowhere near the ball to suddenly living in the backfield. Secondary played decent. They weren’t really tested.
We have to go into ATL next week for MV7’s homecoming. They’re going to be fired up because they just got their ass whupped, so we need to hit’em early to calm everything down. Can’t go into an environment like that and give them more juice than they need by coming out flat.
Reading through these comments has renewed my faith in Eagles fans’ commitment to the agony of victory in the NFL. Good Grief!
Birdo, i must admit you took the words right outta my mouth… i will add that the wrs need to do a better job of chipping the cb on those playaction roll outs bc theyre gonna get vick killed back there… im telling you the mistakes the birds made are all fixable. Theyre not things that are so bad that this is what there gona have to deal with the rest of the yr… The main thing they must sure up is the run d, and there gonna get another test next week from a very run heavy squad in the falcons,
Chaney had a good game, shady beasted, Vick (self explanatory) Kelce did good, DJax (pay him) Hes unreal, Herremans like i said was made to be a Tackle and he may very well make the probowl as one…
The way that game started, I thought they were going to get killed. Thank God for Vick’s legs & McCoy’s 2 big runs. If they didn’t play action Vick all game, the pressure that the Ram’s were getting, was going to kill him. Dude is soooo talented. If they can get this O-line straightened out(TBD), they can be really good, but they still need alot of work, they aren’t very good at all. The LB’s are going to get killed all year. They are lucky Jackson got hurt, because it was going to be a long game. Cadillac Williams blows!
See what happens Andy, when you run the damn ball more. Your O-line is more to run block, not pass block! Run the damn ball & it opens up play action! Good game, good win!
Birdo, agreed he dropped two 50+ td’s. Man that would have been sweet! but oh well, we won, that’s all that counts. They still need to give the damn man a contract raise. Come on already. He’s busting his @$$! He even caught a tough catch in double traffic, & got nailed.
Sorry, meant 2 big TD’s for Shady. My bad! 😆
You know why there’s not much fan fair?……. Things we were concerned about were blatantly clear.
Matthews is lost and is void in the middle..let’s just play with 10 defensive players.
If Bradford didn’t gift wrap a turnover this would have been very close….They were about to score.
Clock Management sucks!!!!!
Defensive players were coming free from Vick’s blindside like we all knew they would.
We’ll beat the bad teams, but if you have these issues against good teams, with good coaching, ….fagetaboutit!
We’re not interested in getting to the playoffs just to have these holes exposed.
I’m beyond the point of waiting for Reid to fix his time management.
That comes with Andy Reid.
I like what Washburn brings but our again……Matthews is a speed bump.
Cut him!!!!!!!!!
Songs you idiot – THERE IS MUCH FANFARE! What planet are you living on? Just this website – if that’s your barometer of Eagles fans, you’re clueless (oh yeah, we already knew you are!). Eagles fans everywhere are happy because the d looks way better than last year, shady continues to thrive and the Eagles won the game handily.
Time management problems? Not a problem at all. Good time management (and Reid HAS struggled with it before, no doubt), is NOT just having your 3 time outs at the end of the halves. That’s ‘keeping your time outs’ – a different thing. You get no points, wins, playoff appearances or trophies for having your timeouts. If you use then in spots where your new players and coaches are having trouble getting the right play/timing on the field – then you should use a time out – not run the play anyway and f up to keep fans like you happy because you keep the time out. Tell me, in which half did we need a timeout and not have it? That would have been bad clock management. Just using timeouts is NOT bad time management. That’s such a low-level simplistic way to not understand football. You’re just trying to hate cause that’s what you do (another shocker!).
Read below for your prediction you asked me to paste – here you go buddy, you’re welcome. (next post)
“Schill…you’re right.
Our offensive line is good to go.
Eagles are a 3 point favorite…
I’m going on record right now …paste it.
Rams will pull out the same scheme used to slow us up compliments of the Giants who showed others how to play against our defense.
Notice, when teams got the blueprint..we lost down the stretch.
The key?
send an extra passrusher every play so the tight end and/or running back is taken out of the the passing game.
and line the safties a little off to take away the big play while the middle linebacker spy Vick.
Field position opportunities are limited with the kickoffs moved up…so teams will take away the big play to force Vick to methodically go up the field 80 yards.
This plays into their hands…So?
So, the rams can play their power running game with play action against our aggreessive front four and will exploit Matthews and our safties in the middle.
Look for a game of keep away by the Rams in hops of pulling it out in the end.
Rams will win game one 24-20
This will be the wake up call needed to move Chaney in the middle and promote Rolle for the linebackers and place Jamaal Jackson in the middle and move Kelce in Watkins spot.
Our opening game last year made Reid adjust his thinking concerning Kolb and I really think a reality check will come if we drop this game against the Rams.
Yes, I would love for the young guys on the line to get experience….but at what expense?
If we drop winable games in the beginning of the season….would that be worth them getting experience?
The answer to that is no.
Right now the Eagles should caution on the side of experience and slowly work the guys who are not game tested into the line later after more practices, watching the vets handle game day.
If Watkins showed us anything this preseason then maybe the support would be there…but he have done nothing to show he’ll be ready for a full dose of top NFL tackles..and that will translate to Vick not having a pocket to step up into….and with an extra guy flying in every play? Mistakes!
Fumbles and interceptions…it starts at the line of scrimmage.
Losses is the only thing Reid responds to.
Every team will follow the same blueprint that lead to our lackluster play going into the playoffs, leading to our earlt exit.
Starting with Rams.
This loss will not be on Vick….
Watch the offensive line.”
schiller, the problem with the time management is not about the timeouts but the fact that Andy and Marty were taking too long to get the plays in. Vick even mentioned that after the game he said “the plays weren’t coming in”. That’s the coaching right there and it’s always been like that with Reid. There’s no reason why almost each play when we get to the line of scrimmage the play clock has less than 10 seconds AND then you want the oline and QB to recognize and adjust to the blitzes. Then you wind up with 3 scenarios: 1) timeout 2) delay of game 3) have to the hike ball to beat the clock without the proper protection set. Those are the time management issues that still plague Andy.
Against a very good defense that play more complicated schemes with better personnel it’s will be even harder to call the blitzes and recognize the coverages so you need those extra few seconds. Having said that, I do think this is something they will definitely work on because yesterday was the first game where Vick was responsible for calling plays at the line. I think we’ll get better there. But that still doesn’t mean we didn’t have problems yesterday. We will just need to see what happens against the better teams. It’s going to be crazy in ATL next week so it will be even more important to get plays in quicker and make adjustments.
scorp – agreed. The novelty of the system (OL/changing more leeway to Vick on calling aduibles/reading the d..etc) plus the new OLmen has to be factored in. Given the context (and context should ALWAYS be considered), it really wasn’t much of a problem. They should continue to work on it for sure, but it didn’t hurt their chances of winning the game and that’s all that matters.