All of the talk from Monday night’s game will be on the record setting performance by Michael Vick, and rightfully so. Vick played at a level that few quarterbacks in the NFL- today or in the history of the game- are capable of playing, even on their best day.
But for the 22 minutes that the Eagles offense was not breaking records,, the defense was on the field, and played a heck of a game as well.
This game was over before the end of the first quarter, so it is important to start there when analyzing the defense. The Eagles defense held the Redskins to only 21 first quarter yards, and forced the Redskins to punt after 3 plays every time. The Redskins managed to hold the ball for a mere 5 minutes total in the first quarter. They also did not allow the Redskins to convert any of there 10 third down plays.
The Redskins offense, needless to say, is not a quick strike unit. They score by grinding you down, pounding the ball, and counting on Donovan McNabb to make plays in the passing game. They are an offense ment to chew up the clock. That makes the Eagles shutting them down early even more impressive. In the first meeting, the Eagles let them jump out early, and it changed the whole tone of the game.
Just because the Eagles offense was scoring didn’t mean the Redskins offense couldn’t. Michael Vick was not lining up at linebacker. The Eagles defensive players stepped up and dominated the Redskins just as much as the offense did in the early part of the game.
During the game, NFL Analyst Deion Sanders said that the Redskins weapons were so harmless, McNabb would be allowed to walk through an airport with them. The Eagles defensive proved him right.
Going into the contest, the Redskins planned to attack rookie safety Kurt Coleman, and Dmitri Patterson. While they managed to beat Patterson once on a deep throw, Coleman and Patterson ultimately got the last laugh, as they both ended up with interceptions and Patterson with a score.
The Eagles had Daniel Synder seeing if the ink was dry on that contract with McNabb, as they made him look hopeless out their. McNabb famously said after the Redskins victory, “Everyone makes mistakes, and they made theirs.” Well, McNabb made his mistakes early and often, stalling the Redskins offense as the Eagles put the game away.
McNabb turned the ball over 3 times and fumbled it once. They also brought him down 2 times. If you take away the one blown play to tight end Fred Davis, McNabb had only 220 yards passing on 31 attempts. Reports are already coming out of Washington that Mike Shanahan was not completely on board with the extension. McNabb was not able to do anything to prove him wrong.
Yes the Redskins ended up with 28 points. But half of those were in the second half when the game plan was scaled back, and most of the starters were on the bench. The other half came with the team up 35-0.
While the numbers might not seem like it on paper, the Eagles defense showed up last night, and shut down the Redskins offense when it mattered most.
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Good write up G. We gave up 2 touches in the 2nd qrtr. Touch a piece on 3rd and 4th. Impressive gien the conditions and they were playing catch up.
G…any word on Allen? And are you looking at Patterson as the new right corner?
And tell Bob C too get off Sean’s tail!!!! Fire him!!! Edit that dude before he posts an article.
meh….. you have to throw a game like this out for the d all together. Bob and G are both right and wrong. Last week the D showed up. This week the water is to tainted to say much of anything. Why bother stopping the run when all you really care about at that point is not letting them get a quick strike? so you cant really count all the rushing yards. They got the kins off the field early and thats all that mattered. I will say that the early pick was amazing awareness and the pick later on the jumped route was great too. as always… the D seems to be gelling more as the year goes on. The real q will come in jan (if we are lucky)…. can this D do anything i the playoffs??? History of our D over the last 11 years says no. But we are holding out hope. Great win for the birds. Bring in the gnats!!!!
Even on the deep pass to Armstrong over D Patterson, the coverage was a good and he was right there to defend but appeared to jump/leap a second too soon and and therefore misjudged the flight of the ball which happens,but it wasn’l lijke he was toast or out of position..
I thought Parker, Dixon,Patterson & Laws all played well up front and constantly in the Redskin backfield (I am not so sure about T Cole and B Graham who didn’t appear to play at that well)
LB’s Fokous had a strong game and SIms and Bradley had their moments but were caught out of position a few times.. The Secondary played very well and especially D Patterson and Coleman..
They were physcial, played hard and fast and even though Coleman got ran over a time or 2, he bounced right back up and came back for more… Think down the road to future seasons when the
Safety Tandem is Allen/Coleman with CB’s Samuel,Patterson, LIndley…that’s pretty good
whats sticks out to me about the defensive play is getting off the field on 3rd downs…They were getting 3 and outs left and right yesterday…If they can keep this up, especially early in the game, giving the O some oppurtunities to put points on the board, they will be very successful. The defense seems to play better with a lead, blitzing is more frequent..Other than that broken coverage play, they did pretty well!
The defense played well against the Colts and dominated the skins. So I don’t think there is anything to really be overly critical about right now but there are still a couple areas of concern. I am still concerned about our LBs in coverage. Right now, Bradley is too up and down for me. It’s clear the defense is a lot better as a unit when he is in there but that just let’s me know there isn’t much depth behind him because Bradley is just ok. I’ll attribute most of it to the injury but that’s why it’s a concern because we don’t know how they will play this week. And the other concern is the secondary defending deep passes.
It’s much easier to play defense when you know the other team has to throw the ball down field. I’m concerned about the games that will be close and how they defend the big plays. We aren’t going to shut everyone out and score a bunch of points as easy as last night. So in those tight games will the secondary hold up? We will see. Right now, I don’t have too much to criticize because they played well this week and last week and I’m not going to overreact to the points the Redskins scored. I don’t care what anyone says, when you are winning by that many points it’s human nature to not be as intense as you were at first.
Good point RT777,
The Eagles stopped the Redskins all game on 3rd Conversions (0-10) and I believe the Redskins are now ranked last in the NFL in making 3rd Down Coversions,, So limiting McNabb and the Redsksin from big plays is the key of stopping their offense..
Mcnabb has to learn a whole new system he has been doing the same thing for 10 years. Have you heard the way they call any of these plays, xyz189 zipper yellow cab orange on 2. I mean shit thats one play!!!! imagine having to learn a whole new playbook!!! it takes time. shannahan would be an indiot to not give mcnabb at least one more year to get this thing down
PTI says his skills are dimishing i just believe its all new and it takes time.