On Second Down (Thought)

Further musings on the Eagles-Giants game. My previous reference to the Eagles passing yards – 138 – was gross passing yards gained. When you include the sacks, the Eagles netted 76 yards passing. Again, compared to 114 yards rushing (on 23 carries), it is even more inexplicable as to why there were so many more passes than running plays called. In fact, when you take McNabb’s four carries out of the rushing stats (4 carries for 4 yards on three scrambles and a QB sneak), the Eagles gained 110 yards on 19 carries – 5.8 yards a pop.

 

The Eagles continue to be one of the most penalized teams in the league. The Giants accepted 15 penalties and declined 2 others.  The Eagles only ran 54 plays. The penalty yardage pretty much zeroed out the gross passing yards. This undiscipline is all on Reid. Yesterday’s press conference had Reid giving a vote of confidence to punter Sal Rocca. Really, the Philly press should have been asking about his confidence in his special teams coach. The fact remains special teams have been a disaster this year. Jeremy Bloom was the pre-season fall guy. The question now is when Rory Segrest will be held accountable for the poor play and penalties.

 

The lone bright spot for the Eagles other than the running game (and Correll Buckhalter) was…as usual  - the defense.

 

I didn’t hear Gocong’s name called much, nor Spikes’ for that matter – except for that personal foul facemask. And I’ve heard some criticism about Omar Gaither being caught by Eli Manning (in Gaither’s defense, Manning did have a head start and Gaither did return his interception 49 yards.) But the Eagles D only gave up 10 points. On the road. That should be MORE than enough stops to win a game. And Jim Johnson did it without his pro bowl cornerback or his pro bowl safety and with his other starting CB suffering a stinger early in the game.

 

Johnson’s squad kept the Giants to 212 total yards, 135 passing for Manning – which, incredibly is less than McNabb had (not counting yardage lost to sacks). Johnson’s men even managed to hold the Giants to 3-11 3^rd down efficiency, a perennial bugaboo in facing the Giants. Jim Johnson held up his end of the bargain with a depleted eleven. Andy Reid, the noted QB coach, did not. Same as it ever was with this team. Maybe someday the Eagles will get an offense comparable to its defense –though probably not while Andy Reid continues to insert himself into the offensive game plan.

 

Anyone else notice that at the end of the 1^st half the referee screwed up the clock? With 39 seconds left the Eagles were whistled for a delay of game, but the Eagles and Giants ran the play and 6 seconds ran off the clock. The delay of game meant the play should never have occurred so the clock should not have run. The refs blew it by not whistling the play dead sooner/louder, and then compounded their error by not putting the 6 seconds back on the clock. It looked like the mistake was going to benefit the Eagles who were on the Giants side of the field and thinking last second score. But they wound up punting and the Giants, with less than 10 seconds left in the half (should have been 14) downed the ball and ran out the clock. It’s a small thing in the scheme of things, but it is an indication that Andy Reid is not paying attention to important details like the game clock to the detriment of his offense. It’s doubly troubling since he’s the head coach and supposedly in charge of time management. He’s even screwing that up!