The Philadelphia Eagles lost on Sunday, but it had nothing to do with the Dallas Cowboys.
When Jay Cutler threw a last minute interception to seal the Green Bay Packers victory over the Chicago Bears, and book their trip to Philadelphia for Sundays playoff game in South Philly, the Eagles were officially the biggest losers on Sunday.
Going into last Sundays game against the Minnesota Vikings, the Eagles were riding high, coming off of a miraculous victory over the New York Giants. They were many people’s pick to go to the Super Bowl, and had two cake walk games left. A first round bye was almost a sure thing.
It’s amazing how a snow storm can change everything.
As we all know, the Eagles have now lost 2 in a row, and stumble into the playoffs having played 1 good quarter of football in the last 12. The news only gets worse for the Birds, as the Green Bay Packers are now coming to town to face the Eagles in what will be the teams 3rd game in 13 days.
Make no mistake about it- the Packers are one of the best teams in the NFC. Their defense is in the top 5 in the NFL in points allowed, passing yards allowed, and total yards allowed. Linebacker Clay Matthews is 4th in the NFL in sacks with 13.5, and gave the Eagles nightmares in their first game. The Packers also have a secondary that will jump all over the interceptions that the Vikings dropped.
Their offense has one of the most prolific passing attacks in the NFL, which is bad news for an Eagles secondary that is currently on life support. The Packers have physical wide out’s, ones that will run through the Eagles arm tackles with ease. Aaron Rodgers is having a great year with almost 4,000 yards passing and 28 touchdowns. The one area in which the Packers struggle is their running game, as they have only rushed for over 100 yards 5 times this year- one of which, was against the Eagles all the way back in week 1.
Compare the Packers to the top teams in the NFC, and they not only are right there with them, they have better numbers. The Packers average .7 less points then the Falcons- but average more thru the air and total yards. They also have a defense that is better then the Falcons in points allowed, total yards allowed and passing yards.
The Bears? The Packers average more points, more yards on the ground and in the air. The Packers defense also dwarfs the Bears D, as they are on top of the Bears in every category, except against the run.
The Birds are favored by 3 points this Sunday, but look around and you will be hard pressed to find someone in the media who has picked the Eagles to win the game.
The Eagles will perhaps face there toughest game on the road to the Super Bowl this Sunday when they play the Packers. A win will put them on the road against a Bears team that will have some rust to knock off after missing a week. They will then most likely travel to Atlanta, in a rematch with a team which they killed with Kevin Kolb under center, and a team that they match up well against.
The Eagles dug themselves this deep hole by losing to the Vikings. They are capable of digging themselves out of it, but the toughest part of doing that will now, unfortunately, be the first part.
The Packers scored 10 points yesterday because they are one-dimensional. Granted, that one dimension is pretty good, but they’re still one dimensional. Erstwhile, the Eagles have only chosen to be one dimensional. Should Reid decide to improve his play-calling, I wouldn’t be surprised to win by 20.
If the Eagles offensive play calling and execution are at the top of the game, which should keep the QB pressure on Vick manageable, I think the birds will best the Packers in a very close game with a late score. If they don’t run the ball successfully, early and often, pack your bags boys cause we won’t keep the packers offense off of the field very long, the D will get gassed and Rogers could scorch the Eagles. It’s up to the coaches to call a disciplined game against a very good defense. On the defensive side of the ball, the Eagles better find a way to pressure the QB.
Shootout. The Eagles have no pass rush and what happens when Jennings is lined up against Patterson? Unless this is game has terrible weather, the Eagles are going to have to score in the 30s to win which they are certainly capable off.
I think the winner of this game at least goes to the NFC Championship game..
Can the Eagles, who after playing so well in Nov/early December turn it back on again or is all momentum lost…They need a quick start that they haven’t down in a while, and this Eagle crowd needs to show-up too and be load,rowdy and cause some hearing problems for the Packers…
honestly, rodgers needs more help and he cant get that over the span of one week.
jennings is like reggie wayne, good route runner and…good speed but nothing special.
they do their jobs and i would take them yes, but they arent the type or wrs to give us problems.
green bay has one of the worst offensive lines, if not the worst, out of all playoff teams.
rodgers will be scrambling in and out of the pocket as much as vick will.
teams throw short on us, and take shots with the double-move. asante takes 1/3 of the field away.
cole is on the opposite side and this might be a game where jordan plays more than sims at wlb.
d. patterson has been more good than bad, his bad has just been magnified more than most 2nd cbs
woodson and mathews will be moved around, but they mostly play on vicks weakside.
the oline has to point mathews out, as we did in the 2nd half when we played them
vick has to call woodosn out, and learn from the winfield experience
mccoy leads the ncf in all-purpose yards, and 2nd to just jones-drew in the league
we have to get him the ball, vick is our star but mccoy is the glue
he needs as many touches as possible, much like we did for westbrook
whether we are winning or losing, gb will throw the ball because they cant run a lick
one-dimensional teams in the playoffs dont fare too well, we have seen how that works
the colts/saints showed us how necessary the run is come playoff time, even the patriots
its not about vick, its about the eagles. mccoy should be featured in these playoffs
i expect a tough first half, body punches to feel each other out
3rd quarter both teams take some shots down the field, and we start pulling away mid-4th quarter
my prediction 26-16 philly
btw…about the gb/chicago game yesterday.
although chicago played their starters, their playcalling on both sides of the ball were very vanilla
gb had to pull out all the stops…at home…to make the playoffs with only a 7-point victory
im not impressed, but i am aware that their defense and qb are as tough a challenge can get
i just have the belief that we can stop teams offenses, more than they can stop ours
their top 5 defense on the road against our top 5 offense, and our defense leads the league in t.o.s