Prevent DeFense Prevents Eagles From W

It was a classic case of the Prevent Defense preventing the Eagles from winning.  The Eagles weren't able to get any consistent pressure on Brian Griese during the last drive and it proved to costly.

The 97 yard drive started with a short toss outside to tight end Desmond Clark.  The Eagles basically gave them the completion by sending Takeo Spikes and Quintin Mikell to get Brian Griese but backing all of the defenders to about 20 yards deep.  Clark caught the ball and ran over Lito Sheppard on his way out of bounds.

On the next play, the Birds were rushing three defensive linemen at the Bears    Griese missed a throw to Adrian Peterson.  With 2^nd and ten and Jevon Kearse faking the blitz in the joker position the Eagles rushed three while Griese hit Peterson who broke a tackle by Kearse and took the pass for a first down.   

Griese then made a throw outide to Devin Hester who was tackled by Lito Sheppard at the 32 yard line.  The Eagles blitzed Griese on the next play but it didn’t seem like the Birds were ready when the Bears snapped the ball.   On the play Griese went deep to Muhsin Muhammad who was covered well by Sheldon Brown.

The next play the Bears held Trent Cole but Lito Sheppard was called for holding with 53 seconds left to go on the clock.  He hit Desmond Clark again and he ran out of bounds to stop the clock.  

So the ball was on the 39 yard line with 3^rd and 3.  This was a key play.  The Eagles were in a zone and Takeo Spikes was beaten by a Griese throw down the middle to Bernard Berrian.  Berrian caught the ball, went by a diving Spikes and took the ball down to the Eagles 36 yard line.  The Eagles were rushing three with Kearse standing up and dropping in the Joker position.  I don’t like the Joker defense because Kearse has no idea what he’s doing while dropping into coverage.  He didn’t get enough depth and that opened the zone next to Spikes to make it an easy throw.  Griese came up to the line and down the ball to stop the clock with 31 seconds remaining.   

The next play was an in route to Devin Hester who was covered by Lito Sheppard.  The Birds rushed four on this play but the none of the rusher were able to get anywhere near Griese.  The speedy Hester delayed his in route so he could let the other receivers clear.  The play went for 21 yards and put the Bears in great position on the 15 yard line with 15 seconds remaining on the clock after Griese spiked the ball again.

So the clock was stopped with the ball on the 15 yard line and 15 seconds remaining.  Jim Johnson put the Eagles in a zone defense.  They rushed four defensive linemen.  Juqua Thomas had a good pass rush and was basically tackled by one of the Bears offensive linemen. 

Muhsin Muhammad was lined in the slot.  The Eagles were in a zone coverage and Sheldon Brown was lined up on Muhammad.  He let Muhsin run by him and directly at safety Sean Considine.  I think you’ve got to get one of your best cover guys on their best receivers in that situation.  This put Muhammad one on one with Considine because Sheldon went to the short outside area thinking that the Bears might try to catch throw the ball to their outside receiver stayed in the short outside area.

Muhummad was where the Bears wanted him, one on one with Considine.  Once Griese spotted the match up, he threw the ball up figuring he would put his money on Muhammad matched up against the Eagles safety.  He was right as Considine misplayed the ball and Muhammad adjusted to it by making the catch.  It seemed as easy as taking candy from a baby.   

Eagles left defensive end Juqua Thomas was tackled on the play by Bears offensive tackle Fred Miller.  it could have easily been a hold, which would have called the play back and pushed the Bears back 10 yards   I dont' see how the same referee group could call the hold on Todd Herremans which gave the Bears the ball back after Brian Westbrook had run for a game sealing first down.  You either make both of those holding calls or you don't make either of them.