Game in Review

You know it’s a bad game or a bad loss when the most positive thing you can take away from it is that Lito Sheppard might only miss the next game.

 

Criminy.  This loss is such a gut punch cause it was such a winnable game. There was a period watching the NFL ticket yesterday where we were switching back and forth from the Eagles as the Pack was running clock before their field goal and the Redskins were lining up for their game winner in OT. In the span of, literally, a minute and a half the Eagles suffered a two game swing in the division, going down 0-1 while the Skins got to 1-0.

 

This one could come back to haunt them when it comes to seedings and byes (if we get that far). I take some solace in that Reid has been very mediocre in openers (3-5). And the Inqy points out today that Reid’s team has made the championship game in three years where they lost the opener, but not sure if that counts “blowing” the opener.

 

Sadly, this was so predictable. Many of us saw the problem immediately after they cut Jeremy Bloom – who it now appears more than ever was a fall guy for the incompetence of new special teams coach Rory Segrest. You can’t pin what happened yesterday on Bloom. He might not have tallied a lot of return yards this preseason, but at least he held onto the ball. You can pin it on a coach who simply did not have his charges ready to play. Beyond the two disastrous Lewis and Reed “muffs” or fumbles, or whatever you want to call them, there was Lewis inexplicably diving for another bouncing punt, and getting in Reed’s way on ANOTHER punt. What a disaster. (PS – I understand what Reed was trying to do on that last punt. The Packer shanked it and Reed was trying to catch it to save field position. But he had to run so far and dive for it that I can’t believe he never thought about just letting it go. Or since he has been a kickoff return specialist, did he have a brain fart and think the ball had to be handled lest the Pack “recover the onside punt?”

 

Even us nonprofessional football people couldn’t believe that Greg Stinkin Lewis was the backup plan after they cut Jeremy Bloom. Lewis? Really? The guy had never fielded a punt in an NFL game. Coaches give such lip service to the importance of special teams. And the Eagles special teams have been very good under Reid because of David Akers and John Harbaugh. But yesterday had to call into question the larger issue of Reid’s priorities. Beyond Lewis returning punts, there is the issue of Akers’ holder. Clearly this is an important issue for our pro bowl kicker. Yet, Reid continues to insist that the punter hold. And now we’ve got an Australian punter whose never handled an American football before holding for #2. Somehow Dirk Johnson’s problems holding for Akers last year – replacing Koy Detmer - were dismissed as kicker eccentricity. The larger question is why our #2 QB, AJ Feeley, isn’t holding for Akers? (though a moot point now that Feeley has a broken hand). Why isn’t the QB the holder rather than the punter? This is crazy.

 

Here’s another point. If the Eagles bring in a returner, then they will have to open up a roster spot to make room for him. Who gets cut to open up a space?

 

Other thoughts and observations:

 

·         The defense played well, especially stopping the run. But let’s face it, the Packers don’t really have a running game.

·         McNabb may have looked rusty, but the line looked even worse. What happened to Todd Herremans? He was abused all game.

·         Has anyone seen Reggie Brown? Our supposed #1 receiver was AWOL.

·         A ton of penalties. And that doesn’t count all the ones that were declined. Terrible, sloppy, lazy, undisciplined.

·         Counting on Westbrook to carry more of the offensive load is understandable, but game plans like yesterday are crazy. Westbrook carried 20 times and had 6 catches. He must have also been thrown to 4 more times. That’s waaaay too much. To unbalanced. Too disproportionate. Too much of a load. If Bucky can’t adequately spell him and other guys can’t get into the offense then something drastic needs to be done or the Eagles need to reevaluate their talent evaluation.