Eagles Give Game Away To Redskins

The Eagles made too mistakes versus the Redskins in order to expect to win.  They committed 13 penalties, turned the ball over twice and missed two field goals.  Add to that an abundance of mental errors and it’s very hard to win the NFL, even if you’re playing team which came into the game with only three wins.

After the costly loss, Chip Kelly still believes that his football team is disciplined, but it’s hard to agree with him after seeing his team make so mistakes while giving away such an important game to the Redskins.  Remember that the Redskins came into the game having won only three of their 14 games.

For the most part, Eagles quarterback Mark Sanchez played very well yesterday against the Washington Redskins, but he threw the interception which cost the Birds the game and likely a chance at making the playoffs..  Sanchez threw for 374 yards, while completing 37 of 50 passes with 2 touchdowns, but one very costly interception.

Sanchez sliced the Redskins secondary up throughout the game, and most of the throws were underneath in the five, ten and fifteen yard area.  The former New York Jet just wasn’t able to get away from his history in the end.  He would have been a hero here in Philadelphia, if he had led the Birds on that fourth quarter drive, but instead he threw a costly interception.

Injured signal caller Nick Foles will be the Birds starting quarterback next year because Sanchez isn’t up to it and I don’t see a way in which they’re going to find a better quarterback in the draft or in free agency. Foles has his limitations, but he can make the deep throws, which Sanchez is too reluctant to do.

Tight end Zach Ertz set the Birds record for most catches in a single game by coming down with 15 catches for 115 yards.  Unfortunately, Ertz was unable to come down with a throw from Sanchez in the end zone which might have given the Birds a victory.  The pass could have been lower and easier to catch, but it had to be caught with his hands and he let it go through them.

Going forward, Ertz has to be on the field for the majority of the offensive snaps.  He’s too valuable a weapon to not be a big part of the offense.  I believe Ertz is capable of being Pro Bowl level tight end, but he’s got to be the starter.

It didn’t make any sense to me for the Eagles to continue to have left cornerback Bradley Fletcher matched up in one-on-one situations with DeSean Jackson.  If he can’t cover Dez Bryant on 25-yard fade routes, he surely won’t be able to cover Jackson on fifty and sixty yard go routes.  For the second time, this year Jackson went over the 100 yard mark in a game against the Eagles.

I care what anybody says, I believe Jackson would  have made the Eagles a better football team, if he were still here.  Every safety I’ve ever played with was always worried about getting beaten deep and that what Jackson does better than anybody in the NFL.  His absence has made life tougher for LeSean McCoy because safeties get more involved in stopping the Birds running game.  The threat of Jackson getting deep opens up room for all the other offensive weapons.

I understand that Billy Davis believes in Fletcher as a person, but you can’t continue to match him up one-on-one, when he can’t cover the guy, you’re asking him to cover.  After the game Davis said, ““I don’t regret anything, no.  I make plans based on what I see and make decisions based on what I see and I don’t regret one minute of it.”

“Like all players you’ve got to give him a shot to get out of a slump when they’re in a slump or you just end up bailing on everybody every time one play goes bad. You can’t play ball that way or build confidence that way.

“Made the switch when I thought it was time to make the switch. Unfortunately, it didn’t work out.”

I don’t care what anyone says, there’s no way the Birds should have been letting Fletcher try to cover Jackson one-on-one after the scorching he got by Dez Bryant.  Those big throws to Jackson gave Robert Griffin III the confidence that he lacked coming into the game.  There’s no way to defend that strategy.  Fletcher has been getting beaten deep all season long and his buddy on the other side Cary Williams has been getting penalized consistently.

It took Jackson beating Fletcher two times on those deep passes for Davis to bench the cornerback in favor of Nolan Carroll.

Fletcher’s body language didn’t look good during the game.  Right now he’s a beaten player and somebody needs to have a talk with him.  A player shouldn’t be listening to the criticism or it will have you taking the field with the mission of not making a mistake.

From a technique standpoint, he’s got to use his size and strength to jam Jackson at the line of scrimmage.  It makes no sense to move up into a press technique and not jam a small, speedy guy like Jackson.   He’s never going to be able to stay with Jackson in a foot race.  His only chance to have success is to beat Jackson up at the line of scrimmage.  Instead he moves up into press technique then lets Jackson release and the little guy runs away from him.  That’s not smart and winning football.

Jackson leads the league with 12 catches of more than 40 yards and Fletcher has been nothing but a target for much of the season.  Any clear thinking defensive coordinator is going to send a safety over there to give him help.  Remember that Jackson beat the Eagles for a 81-yard touchdown in the first game.

It’s hard to have confidence in a defensive coordinator like Davis, who continues to get burned but stays in the same defense play after play and game after game.  If the Eagles had forced the Redskins to put together 10 and 15 plays scoring drives, they would have probably made more mistakes.

The Eagles Special Teams had been playing great football all season and Birds rookie kicker Cody Parkey was a big part of it.  Yesterday, he missed two field goals and he could have put the Birds in the driver’s seat for a victory.