| Andrew Perna. 30th September, 2008 - 1:45 pm
 The Eagles fell to 2-2 on Sunday night after a disappointing loss to the Bears, which left them at the bottom of the NFC East.
The defeat stings for a variety of reasons. Wins are more important in their division than any other, and the manner in which they suffered both their losses is tough to swallow.
Philadelphia is +36 in points this season, thanks to their 38-3 drubbing of the Rams in Week One, and have lost two games by a combined 8 points. Their defeat at the hands of the Cowboys in Dallas two weeks ago was tolerable because they came out of the game better than any loser in recent memory, but losing to Chicago on Sunday night has only hurt them.
Missed field goals, the absence of Brian Westbrook, and their inability to capitalize on a number of spectacular defensive plays kept the Eagles from going 3-1 in the month of September.
Akers Comes Up Short
You can’t blame David Akers for Philadelphia’s loss, but they certainly would have been in much better position had he nailed the pair of field goal attempts he missed – a 50-yarder in the second that was wide right and 47-yarder in the third that the right upright.
What surprised me most about the misses is simply the poor luck of Akers, who got enough of both kicks to reach his target. The 50-yard miss was simply a poorly aimed kick, but the bounce the football took off the upright in the third was a strange stroke of luck for the Bears.
With that said, I’m not sure how Akers could kick back-to-back field goals to the right side. One would think that he and holder Sav Rocca would have game-planned the second attempt a little to the left.
The Absence Of Brian Westbrook
In my last analysis of the Eagles, I proclaimed that Donovan McNabb was more important to the offense than Westbrook, and while that still may be true, Philadelphia often looked lost without B-West on the field.
Chicago does have one of the toughest defenses in all of football but were coming off a loss to Tampa Bay during which they allowed Brian Griese to throw for 407 yards.
After scoring touchdowns on two of their first five drives, the Eagles managed just two field goals the rest of the way despite committing only two turnovers (a McNabb interception and a fumble). On four of those eleven drives, they started in Chicago territory.
McNabb wasn’t horrible but couldn’t get into a rhythm with his receivers dropping a number of catchable passes and rookie DeSean Jackson running the wrong route on the play in which he threw his only interception of the game.
He did post his lowest completion percentage and QB rating of the young season.
I have to believe that Westbrook, even with a bum ankle, would have found a way to get into the end zone late in the fourth quarter when the Eagles failed to score what could have been the game-winning touchdown on three-consecutive plays from the one-yard line.
He’s far more explosive than Correll Buckhalter, who seemed to believe that running straight into the Bears’ defense, which was stacked at the line on all three plays, was going to get the job done.
It’s hard to believe that Philadelphia wasn’t better prepared to play without their start running back, who has missed twelve games in his seven-plus years in the NFL.
Defense Didn’t Lead To Offense
The Eagles’ defense was nothing short of spectacular from midway in the second quarter – when the Bears scored their third and final touchdown – on, but Andy Reid and the offense weren’t able to put enough points on the board.
Thanks to Jim Johnson’s defensive unit, this is how Chicago’s final eight possessions looked: punt, punt, interception, punt, punt, fumble, field goal, punt.
The defense gave the offense tremendous field position in Philadelphia’s last six drives, but they managed only six measly points.
It appeared as though Reid lost some confidence in his wide receivers late in the game since he called for seven runs on the team’s eleven-play drive that ended in a turnover on downs at the one-yard line. With the ball at Chicago’s four, Reid called four-straight running plays.
Had Reid mixed at least one pass play into the final series, you'd have to wonder if Philadelphia would currently be 3-1. If nothing else, calling a quick curl or slant route in the end zone would have kept the Bears honest as Buckhalter attempted to score on fourth-and-one.
Reid loves calling the plays on offense; it’s what got him a head coaching job in the first place, but perhaps the Eagles would be better off if Marty Mornhinweg were talking to McNabb from the sideline.
There will be no rest for the weary with the Redskins coming to Lincoln Financial Field this Sunday in what is as close to a must-win for the Eagles as you’ll ever see in the first weekend of October.
Andrew Perna is a Senior Writer for RealGM. Please feel free to contact him via e-mail with comments or questions on this piece: Andrew.Perna@RealGM.com. |
