I beg your Pardo— I never promised you an Eagles rose garden—

Pardo

I have come to love Don Pardo‘s 10-point post-game wrap-ups… Don has been following the Eagles and the EYE since forever from the Indiana prairies, so I give great credence to his observations.

Here are Don’s latest “10 Things” to take away from the Eagles’ recent victory in PS2 over the striving team known as the Buffalo Bills:

Don Pardo · 

Top 10 Observations from this armchair for PS Game Two:
1) McGloin still sucks arse. I am surprised he hasn’t gotten more of our receivers, backs and TEs kilted. Foles, your elbow better be healthy.
2) Our 3rd down conversion rate was atrocious. 0-7 in 1st half.
3) We were in Buffalo’s side of field the whole 1st half and mustered 9 points…hmmm
4) Pumphrey is just too light. He is going to get kilt. He takes vicious hits each game.
5) Clement is the real deal if he stays healthy.
6) Marcus Johnson made us forget Mack Hollins pretty quickly…and Paul Turner.
7) Hoculi had more mike time last night than Bruce Springsteen did when he played at the Linc. (Best comment from the broadcast) – btw Hoculi…that wasn’t “Roughing the Passer” on Destiny…
8) Can the Equipment Mgr…fix Wisnieski’s helmet? – I don’t like the fact he looks between his chin strap and the last bar of his cage in his face mask.
9) Sturgis is struggling..even his made FGs look kind of awful…especially from 40+ – it is a crap shoot.
10) Greene, Warmack and Gordon played pretty good last night.
Of course, our other “Indiana Wants Me” fan Chris (ATV) Ruggiero had some counterpoint to offer:

Chris Ruggiero ·Indiana University (Bloomington)

“Warmack suks arse… a tripping penalty, holding penalty and numerous blown assignments. He can run block (maybe the only one on that line last night who could), but we are a passing team and iffin he plays he’s gonna either get Wentz kilt… or draw a lot of laundry from the officials.”
“My boi Mills has all but locked up a starting spot at CB… he is much better than last year, as he should be and as I expected and told y’all.”
“Kelce should not be traded… while he is not good, he is MILES ahead of the Wiz (who I can’t believe is going to make this team he’s been so bad), and Neary? Or the UDFA we overpaid who isn’t even playing Center anymore. We have no choice but to stick with Kelce at this point IMO.”
Dave Spadaro puts things into perspective heading into the next preseason game against Miami:

“There is an understanding that the offense, which figured to be ahead of the defense when camp opened, has yet to click. The next couple of weeks of practice will be critical.”

“Stay healthy. The Eagles host Miami for a couple of days of practices this week before playing the Dolphins on Thursday night. Preseason Game No. 3 is historically when the starters play the longest, with everyone holding their breath hoping the players don’t go down with injuries.”

Yeah, that’s kinda where we are right now.

Our running game hasn’t shown up yet in the way the Eagles want it to be. At least we can’t blame that on injuries, which is a good thing.

“Obviously we have a lot to improve on,” running back LeGarrette BlountI beg your Pardo--- I never promised you an Eagles rose garden--- said. “We have a lot of corrections to make. It’s not going as smoothly as any of us want it to go. But like I said, it’s the preseason. We are still in camp. This is the time to make the corrections and not take it over into the regular season so we are going to work on it.”

“Head coach Doug Pederson wants to get everything rolling with the running game and then use play-action passing to gash defenses”, said Spadaro. “The strategy worked at times last season, but the lack of weapons hurt the Eagles in the four-minute offense where they lost at least a couple of games late (in Detroit, in Dallas) when they had leads and couldn’t convert on third downs.”

As Don Pardo pointed out, against Buffalo on Thursday night, the Eagles failed on their first nine third-down attempts (0 for 7 in the first half).

That and a dollar will get you a walking tour of Brizer’s swimming pool in Bryn Mawr.

“I know these guys are working hard, and I’ve seen what they’ve done in practice,” Pederson said after Thursday’s win. “Again, you know, it’s a mindset. The run game is a mindset, it’s a mentality, and it takes 11 guys to do it. We do so much run-throw combinations that we even did tonight, that if the run’s not there, we’re going to throw it to the perimeter. So we had those combinations tonight, and sometimes it gets kind of mistaken for a lot of throws when actually it’s a run called and it ends up being – what we call – an advantage throw to the perimeter. So, you know, it’s our Training Camp stuff. But I’m not concerned with where we’re at right now.”

Well, I am concerned about the lack of firepower on the ground I have seen so far. Granted, we didn’t have our starting 5 on the O-Line playing all together yet. That is a big part of the combination the Eagles are counting upon. But yes, I am concerned about the plug’n’play guys we signed (like Wiz and Warmack) and their abilities to come up big-time when the bell rings in September.

If you build a great O-Line, the offense will come. Just wondering if the O-Line is up to it? Also questions about the pass-protect abilities of the running backs who will be charged with saving Private Wentz in those sure-to-come moments of truth when the shyte hits the fan…

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