It’s Early But Time For The Eagles Offense To Start Picking It Up

Nobody can go to an Eagles practice and not see the tremendous potential that they have at their receiver positions.  This team is potent with DeSean Jackson, Jeremy Maclin, Jason Avant, Brent Celek, LeSean McCoy and their backups.

Kevin Kolb is capable of throwing the short to intermediate pass with great accuracy and timing.  At times he has run the offense with tremendous precision, but he must become more consistent.  If het struggles with consistency when he’s not getting hit, it’s surely going to be tough not to struggle with it when 280 pound defensive ends are running full speed and putting their helmets in his back.

The Eagles should win a few games on their schedule simply because they’re so explosive.  We know what Jackson can do by himself if a team allows a game to become a foot-race, but Kolb will need the time to get the ball off.

They’re getting ready to start their preseason schedule on Friday, so it’s important that they start getting things together.  The mistakes have to stop and they need to being executing the way I believe they’re capable of doing.

Few want to say it but the Flight Night performance by the Eagles offense would have been better titled “Fright Night”, as they took turns messing up.  Sometimes it was the center, other times it was the quarterback, while the receivers took their turns dropping passes or running the wrong routes.

I know all of their weapons weren’t healthy and available, but the performance didn’t look good at all.  Some of their training camp practices have taken on a similar tone.

Yesterday at beginning of a news conference, offensive coordinator Marty Mornhinweg was asked about the progress of Kevin Kolb and he responded, “Kevin’s done an outstanding job. He certainly has the ability to play at a high level, and we’re getting all of our hard work and preparation done.”

Next up he was asked about how he was reading blitzes and handling pressure and he said, “He’s doing an outstanding job and we’re giving him a bunch of work versus the blitz, and he’s done an outstanding job of that.”

Later on in the news conference when he was asked whether some of his players had stage fright on Flight Night, Marty said, “Well, that happens. That’s real. I think that’s a real thing. And I’m glad we went through that before we get to the preseason and regular season games. I think that’s a real thing.”

When he was asked specifically about Kolb’s play at yesterday’s workout, Mornhinweg wasn’t as glowing in his praise, “There were, let’s say two or three plays yesterday morning and he was sharp in the afternoon too, that we really focused on getting it done. And then this morning, I thought he was real sharp. There were probably one or two plays in there, if I remember here I have to see it on the film, that we’ll work on to get him better for tomorrow and so forth.”

Kolb has struggled versus the blitz.  He often rushes his throws when he doesn’t have to and he doesn’t have the quick feet in the pocket.

When asked about the progress of his offense, I thought Mornhinweg was very honest.  “Now, we’re so young and in some cases inexperienced that it’s a little bit more up and down than in a normal camp. But, I do think that we’re making excellent progress and certainly anticipated some of these ups and downs.”

“There will be a time where, we’ve been through a couple of just great practices, we’ve been in a couple where it’s been the opposite of that, and then we’ve been in a couple where we’ve had some great, just terrific periods and then we fell into a couple other periods. So, we’re up and down just a little bit, but with this youth and inexperience we sure are getting better at really a high rate from day-to-day with the exception of taking a step back every now and then.”

It’s still very early and the Eagles haven’t even played a preseason game, but it’s time for the offense to start stepping it up and showing us what they can do.