Eagle-metrics

Paul Domowich does his best Bill James in sifting through a variety of statistics to shed some light on the Eagles’ season just concluded. Several items caught my eye. First, is the sack per pass play. He reports that Donovan McNabb was sacked once every 11.75 pass plays. But if you take out the 7 sack Umenyiora/Winston Justice debacle, then McNabb was only sacked once every 14 pass plays.

 

And on the subject of McNabb and his newfound propensity to fumble - his nine fumbles is not an unusually high number for him. He fumbled nine times in one other season (2003) and coughed it up eight times in four other seasons. And of those nine fumbles, the Eagles lost five of them. Again, not out of the ordinary for McNabb. He lost that many or more fumbles in 1999 (6), 2002 (5), and 2004 (6). Funny how during the Super Bowl run how no one complained about his eight fumbles or the six that were actual turnovers..

 

The second thing is Domo’s assertion that “They finished 24th, converting just 23 of 51 trips inside the opponents' 20 into TDs. Only two playoff teams were worse - the Bucs (43.percent) and the Titans (36.4 percent).” Curious, that inclusion of “playoff teams” as a yardstick. Being ranked 24^th overall, I’m shocked that any playoff teams were below the Eagles.

 

And finally, there is the special teams play. Domo notes the statistically poor showing of the special teams and the disastrous results in the season opener versus the Packers. He goes on to note that “Reid eventually brought back Reno Mahe to return punts. Mahe has sure hands to go with slow feet. He had just four returns longer than 12 yards and none longer than 32. Kick returners Reed and Correll Buckhalter had just four returns of 32 or more yards, none longer than 35.” But here’s what drives me crazy. Reid brought Mahe back- sure hands but slow feet. So why in the name of Joe Banner didn’t the Eagles keep Jeremy Bloom. If all they wanted was sure hands Bloom was there man. And Bloom’s speed is certainly better than Mahe’s. And Bloom wouldn’t have cost them the Packers game.

 

This is the move that is most puzzling and frustrating of the entire season. A move that, quite simply, cost the Eagles the Packers game and likely a playoff spot. They cut returner Jeremy Bloom because he wasn’t a game breaker. Only they released him with no plan B to replace him. And the guy that they eventually replaced him with, Mahe, is slower and less of a game breaker than Bloom. So what was Reid thinking? Oh yeah, that’s right. In September when all this went down, he was thinking “I can’t believe my two kids are going to jail.”