No one expected this type of performance from the Eagles on Sunday against a quality New York Jets football team. Most of us were expecting a competitive game but not a beat down like this, especially the Eagles being the ones to deliver the beating. It all happened so quickly.
At the blink of an eye the Eagles were up 21-0 and we were well on our way to finally witnessing a quality Eagle victory reminiscent of what we saw at the Linc against Dallas earlier in the season. Miraculously this team is still alive in the NFC East race as they improved their all time record against the Jets to 9-0. No other franchise in the league has more wins against another opponent without a single loss which shows just how dominant the Birds have been over the years against the other New York football team.
The Eagles passing game was an essential part of the victory on Sunday especially the tight end play of Brent Celek. Celek was targeted 6 times and finished with 5 receptions for 156 yards and a touchdown. His longest reception was a 73-yarder which Celek did most of the work running down field after the catch. Celek’s day turned out to be one for the books as his 156 yards receiving were most by an Eagles tight end in 46 years since Pete Retzlaff had 204 yards against the Redskins back in 1965.
“Those are pretty good corners, but we had a couple of good opportunities outside as well”, Andy Reid said afterwards about avoiding Darrelle Revis and the Jets cornerbacks. “Celek has been playing well, and we were able to get some match-ups that we liked.”
“Yeah, we knew there would be some man on man opportunities and we had to take advantage of”, Celek said afterward his productive day.
Tight ends have become a key component to some of the most successful NFL offenses in recent years and I’ve always endorsed the use of Brent Celek in the Eagles offense. Celek is a good tight end more than capable of going above and beyond expectations. In the two most successful wins this season against the Jets and the Cowboys Celek was an integral part of the offense. If Andy Reid has any common sense he’ll use this as a blue print going forward when it comes to game-planning the passing game against opponents.
Jeremy Maclin had a solid performance against the Jets and showed signs of improvement. He still doesn’t seem back to his level of play prior to his injury but he’s shown improvement. Maclin was targeted 5 times and had 3 catches for 57 yards with his longest reception being a 23 yarder. Maclin seemed to show the fire he usually has against opponents not backing down and getting into the faces of defenders after plays. He wasn’t afraid to go over the middle of the field and make the catch.
I expect Maclin to continue his improvement and if things play out the way the Eagles want Andy Reid will most likely increase his work load for the last 2 games of the season. The passing game will surely benefit even more once they have Maclin hitting on all cylinders as he was earlier this season.
DeSean Jackson had an injury scare towards the end of the first half but turned out to not be serious. The injury was deemed to be an elbow contusion and DeSean was able to return to the field. He was only targeted twice during the game and caught both passes for 28 yards. His longest reception came on a curl route for 16 years which was a key catch in keeping a scoring drive going for the Birds. The lack of plays being called for number 10 seemed to come from a combination of great coverage by Derrelle Revis and the injury which might have caused Andy Reid to shy away from throwing his way. Revis shadowed DeSean all afternoon and did a great job of taking him out of the game. Jackson didn’t play great but didn’t make any mistakes either.
He made a great play chasing down Tyrone Pool who picked up a LeSean McCoy fumble. It appeared as if Pool was about to take it to the house when DeSean sprinted downfield and put his body on the line to put a stop to that. His speed and hustle showed on that play and it’s that kind of effort that will allow DeSean to make a case for a new contract with the Eagles. It appears he genuinely wants to put a solid effort into the remainder of the schedule and finish out on a high note. Whether or not DeSean is back with the team next year will be determined once the season is over but for the time being he can control his performance on the field. If everything works out in the Eagles favor they’ll need a healthy, positive DeSean Jackson on the field.
The receiving core rounded out with back up tight end Clay Harbor being targeted twice and catching both passes for 20 yards. It was good to see Harbor involved as the use of two tight ends in the pass game has proved to be effective for other teams such as New England. It would be nice to see him mixed in throughout the game more often to throw defenses off. Riley Cooper was targeted once and caught a pass for 20 yards.
Jason Avant was targeted twice but came up without a reception and LeSean McCoy was targeted twice and came up with receptions on both passes for -5 yards. Going forward it’d be nice for Andy Reid to use McCoy in the pass game by implementing more screen passes. The Eagles have had success in the past using the screen with Brian Westbrook so it may not hurt to add more of that to the game plan going forward. McCoy is clearly showing he is on the same level as Westbrook was in his prime so it could prove to be very effective to use it more often.
Considering how dominant the Jets defense has been over the years the Eagles wide receivers and tight ends had a fantastic day. Every receiver and tight end averaged at least 10 yards receiving for the day. The lanes were open down the field and the Eagles took full advantage of it in the passing game. If they can pull this performance off against the Jets secondary surely they can build upon it and continue the success against Dallas next week. Obviously the Eagles now need help from the Jets in order to stay alive but things are very reminiscent of 2008 right now. If the Giants do in fact lose to the Jets in the early game on Saturday the Eagles will have an opportunity to keep the ball rolling their way.
It’s still a long shot for the Birds but the bottom line is at the moment football still has meaning in Philadelphia. If the Eagles would have just played like this all season we wouldn’t be discussing this scenario. The frustrating part of the entire season is the potential was there all along to play this way week in and week out but for whatever reason it didn’t turn out that way. The fate of the Eagles season is now in the hands of Rex Ryan and the Jets. Hopefully they provided them with a few parting gifts as they made their way out of town Sunday night.
