Gaining yardage wasn’t the problem for the Eagles today. They went up and down the field all afternoon long. Eagles quarterback Michael Vick threw for a career high 416 yards and threw two touchdowns, as well as running for another 75 yards today, but it wasn’t enough as the Eagles lost to the Niners 24-23.
The Eagles couldn’t get the ball into the end zone. They made costly mistakes in the red zone and scored only two touchdowns despite getting in position to score touchdowns seven times.
Games are decided by how many points you put on the board, not how many yards you rack up.
It’s very clear that Andy Reid and Marty Mornhinweg don’t have the answer for getting this team into the end zone. Their smallish offensive line can’t push defenders off the line of scrimmage in short yardage or goalline. Maybe Howard Mudd’s small offensive linemen will help in the future, but it’s not helping this football team right now. They’re being overpowered in those situations.
What were Reid and his coaches doing during the lockout? Last year they had this same red zone problems and they continue to damage this football team. The Eagles are able to move the football in between the twenties, but once they get in the red zone, they don’t have the answers.
The best play they’ve run in the red zone is that shuffle pass to LeSean McCoy, which they’ve been running for the last six years. They used to run it with Brian Westbrook and now it’s McCoy. Ike Reese and I were calling the play in the press box when they shifted from an I formation to a split back formation.
Running back Ronnie Brown turned the ball over once by trying to throw the ball to one of his teammates, while he was wrapped up by some 49ers defenders. Their rookie kicker Alex Henery made a few field goals but he also missed a couple of easy chip shots in the second half.. It was the type of game that Vick and the Eagles offense could have decided themselves, but they left the door open.
Turnovers was the next problem for the Birds and the Jeremy Maclin turnover proved to be fatal. I’ve said for years now that, Vick, McCoy and Maclin don’t secure the football when they’re running with it. Reid and his football team has been fooled by their big play ability. They think that’s the answer to everything and it’s not.
You don’t have to be a great team to punch the ball in when you get in the red zone, but you have to be able to punch the ball into the end zone from the red zone if you want to be a good football team. This isn’t a good football team.
Bad teams lose these types of games and right now, Vick is leading a bad football team. They can’t run the ball when teams know they’re going to run it, like in short yardage and goalline.
When asked whether Andy Reid had been too conservative in the second half, Vick defended his coach.
“Absolutely not”, Vick said in the locker room afterward. “I don’t agree with that. I mean there’s three phases that you to excel each and every Sunday for 16 weeks – offense, defense and special teams. Offense, defense and special teams.”
That comment sounded a lot like what Reid had to say afterwards about what specific area of the squad is holding them back.
“It’s offense and defense”, Reid said. “You can’t sit on leads. You can’t do that as a football team. That’s what I did with our team here, and we lost the game”.
The Eagles weren’t sitting on the lead, they just don’t have a good game plan for getting into the end zone after they get in or near the other team’s red zone.
Although you and I might disagree with Vick, he didn’t feel the coaching staff was at fault, at least that’s what he said. He pointed his finger solely at himself and the other guys in the locker room as the reasons for their troubles.
“I think right now we just have to figure it all out” Vick said. “You know, you take the coaches out of the equation and you rely on the players, my teammates, to figure it out what needs to be done. Our coaches can only give so much. We have to take to into consideration ourselves, that we go out and make it happen and that’s about it”.
Vick had his middle finger come out of joint during the game, but the trainers popped it back in and he continued to play. Remember he had said this past week that that the only he was going to takeout of wwthey were going to
“I was just determined to finish the game, regardless of how I had to do it” said Vick. “And I did it. I wish the outcome could have been a little bit different but it is what it is.”
First a McNabb led offense struggles in the RedZone, Now a Vick led offense struggles in the RedZone… It’s a coaching playcalling issue. Andy has to go!!! Get them little Guards and Center off the field too. How can you run up the middle with 2 300lb Guards and a 280 lb center. That loss yesterday was sickening.
The play by Ronnie brown epitomizes it all, you will never see such a play, that was called and not improvised, giving the running back the option to throw while failing to run it in, won’t see that type of gimmicky foolishness in a pop warner contest, Reid is a gimmick, you are up 20 points and you continue to throw, just list all the other gimmicks, we all know them, this team, this coach, they embarrass us, they embarrass the game of football, played with discipline, by big, strong, tough men, led by leaders of men in the tradition of lombardi and not overweight, soft, peddler of junk football
I don’t understand it. Yes, Juan Castillo is to blame for the defense but where does Reid’s accountability begin and end in all of this? When will Lurie wake up? Will it take a few more seasons of this? This team has been on a downhill slide long before this season even started. The sad thing is its more likely that Castillo be fired first but Reid needs to be held to the fire as well since he set this whole thing in motion.
P.S. I will be eagerly looking forward to hearing your take on the game tonite G on Wip.
I need to know more about the Brown play…whether or not it was some designed wildcat disaster, or was he just being a bonehead? If he was being a bonehead, why not cut him today? He’s clearly not that important…he’s on the field about 5x a game. If the play was designed for him to fall backwards into the pile and then lateral….well…then I don’t know what to say. Difficult for me to believe it was drawn up like that, but if it was, I think that’s a fireable offence. And to add insult to injury, Reid actually challenged the thing, which was beyond embarassing. Though in my book calling 56 passes and 9 runs in a game you’re leading from the 1st Q is inexcusable.
Inside the 21 yardline Vick had the ball in his hands 12x. Results:
4 of 9 one TD, one sack and 2 scrambles for 5 yrds. Not impressive.
I’m going to give the rookie K a pass on this one, only because he’s a rookie and his college resume suggests he should be able to fix his mistakes.
Andy probally thinking today…”49ers, idiots. why would u hand the ball off to Frank Gore”
@Vinne
dont be an A – hole…You’ll find anyway to shit on Vick…Vick was not the problem at all yesterday…He played very well…He does not call the plays down in the redzone…he doesn’t kick the field goals either…He also didnt throw a fumble at the 1 inch line…. you believe Vick sucks…for him to be so terrible, you seem very hard on him….what were his numbers overrall? I say pretty impressive…Vick put this team in position to come away with at least 32 points, which should be enough to beat most teams.
i want to throw up.
red zone play calling is horrible.. i would bring in dion lewis in red zone for short yardage run shuffle to mccoy ..roll to the right with vick and look for the tight end with a run pass option or a quick slant..its not rocket science .. you do what works and you do it bette rthan the other team.. you dont try to be extra sneaky ..hes a moron
Bottom line is the Eagles are 1-3 and will not be making the Playoffs in 2011
They need the figure out who is going to be the DC and who will they add to their Roster to improve this team at weak postions..
TO MAKE A LONG STORY SHORT, GENTS, THIS ENTIRE STAFF NEEDS TO BE FIRED TODAY!!! THERE ARE NO MORE EXCUSES!!! THEY WILL NEVER WIN WITH THIS COACHING STAFF!!! SQUARE PEG IN ROUND HOLE REID, RITALIN BOY CASTILLO & MORNINGWOOD, MIGHT BE THE WORST, 3 HEADED MONSTER, I’VE EVER SEEN!!!!!
Andy Reid is responsible for everything. He runs the entire franchise. He is responsible for: lousy playcalling, terrible time management, absurd personnel decisions, ridiculous draft picks, and hiring of incompetent assistant coaches, and blatant disregard of positions.
I’m telling you now, we are watching the beginning of the end. He will be gone after this year when they go 6-10 or 7-9.
The question is, who will they bring in? Gruden or Cowher!!!
Its definitely not looking good…which is a big understatement…but until we lose 5, maybe 6 games I’m not ready to throw in the towel just yet…Although honestly, the way this team has played, they do not deserve my loyalty…in my opinion this is a case where everyone is truly entitled to their own opinion, and I will not call you “Bad Fans” for that…
You are right Real. Vick wasn’t the main problem yesterday. Nor did I saw he was terrible – but I did point out his failings in the RZ and his pick. But while he wasn’t terrible, he wasn’t the solution either. Isn’t he the $100 million superstar? The guy we can’t win without??
He was 4 or 9 with 3 sacks/scrambles on his 12 called throws in the redzone. One TD was the shufflepass which is basically a run. Sure he put up 400+, but did he come thru when needed??
He is way down the list of things that went wrong yesterday, but isn’t he supposed to be the guy who “keeps ballin’ and does something right?
Vick is the leader of the O, and they put up 3 pts in the second half yesterday. He has to be mentioned as a factor doesn’t he?
The 3 turnovers were brutal yesterday, I have already posted on Brown’s idiocy and Maclin’s carelessnes, but Vick had the other one on a terrible, underthrrown, poor decision. That has to be mentioned doesn’t it?
Again, there are many more important factors in this loss, and they’re being covered pretty substansially here byy others, so I won’t repeat them…
I’ll just stick with your company line….it was everyone else’s fault, except his. Everyone gets blamed but him. How ridiculous to even mention the QB How could you ever ever ever mention the QB when a team scores 3 pts in a half…how dare you!!!!
vinnie – Ronnie Brown told reporters after the game that it was a botched “HB option” – so yes, a wildcat play gone wrong. (inquirer or daily news said that Devan was pulling to the left and tripped, right in the space that Brown was suppossed to step up in the pocket to run or throw. So Brown was being tripped up when he tried (stupidly) to throw the ball.
Dcar – are you hoping for a terrible record and high draft order? If yes, I hear you, and say so. Otherwise, tell us why it would help to fire everyone now.
If it’s just you being emotional, well no surprise there, we all are (though we show it in different ways).
But really, it’s only going to make it worse if we blow the whole thing up in week 5.
the fact that that play was called tells you everything you need to know about Reid and mm, if you can’t punch it in against the 49ers at home, week 4, you have no chance of ever doing it come crunch time, clean house now, but I don’t even know who you could promote to interim head coach, its that bad here
Jakedog – I don’t agree with that statement. First, Ronnie Brown has ran in plenty of touchdowns in his career. he’s also successfully thrown too. So the play call wasn’t the problem. It’s worked for touchdowns so it’s not a bad play call. The Niners have very good Dl/LBs so I don’t know what your point is in terms of “if you can’t punch it in agains the 49ers – punching it in was one of those options on the play – it was an HB option. Brown made a bad play.
Second, if you admit there’s no clear answer to what you do if you clean house now, then how is it intelligent to clean house now?
GTFOH with that …IT WAS NOT A PLAY CALL AT ALL REPEAT IT WAS NOT A PLAY CALL AT ALL….Watch the play THERE WERE NO RECVRS on the field everyone was blocking everyone//so cut that BS abt it was the called play…Id cut Ronnie Brown today to show this team I aint fukkin around
so I can be spared the agony ever again of watching Reid call a halfback option at third and one, watch the back run into the defender, fall to the ground, throw the ball in the air, and then challenge th call, forcing us to watch it again, again, and again, and check out the aol welcome screen, they have the video up, eagles are the laughing stock of the world, it doesn’t get much worse than this
Gotta – I’m just quoting the man.
Ike Reese was asked how do we clean up this mess. Reese said no team is stacked their is no all stars in every position, Castillo has to pick up the slack. Sorry i don’t remember much scoring in the second half. reese was also asked why Reid did not run(atleast in second half) he said Reid did not want to sit on a lead and lose like in Atlanta game…. i am confused! i don’t remember being up in that game
In one respect, I feel like it only makes sense to fire Andy Reid now if you can get Jon Gruden or Bill Cowher in place. On the other hand I think the season could not be lost. I expected this level of confusion and failure at the beginning of the season given all the changes that happened and maybe just let it play out to whatever end and figure it out at the end of the year.
Of course I would be remiss to not add here that ALL of the people that supported Donovan Mcnabb for years while a bunch of idiots blamed him for absolutely everything having to do the failures and no credit for winning are vindicated. Virtually, the entire team has been turned over and the same identical problems still exist.
Mcnabb said it…..The Eagles have me problems than quarterback…He was right!
There’s no way a team would run right up the middle on short yardage with a mobile, fast, quarterback.
Spread the field with multiple passing options and give Vick the option..Teams can’t stack the line if there’s four passing options.
This guy is backwards….When he should run he passes…When he needs to spread the defense he runs with an unedrsized line.
Mcnabb, BDawk, Sheldon Brown, David Akers….”poetic justice’