It’s the morning after the morning after… They put me on a radio show down in Atlanta last night…the “Life After the Game Show” featuring Lamar and Anthony… They tried to bait me into saying Mike Vick was “tanked” even before the semi-concussion hit against Todd Herreman’s helmet which took him out of the game…
I told them Matt Ryan took more hits in the pocket than Vick did. I told them Vick had reasonably good protection provided by his O-Line… then I turned the tables on them by pointing out they should be keying on the great game Tony Gonzalez had at TE for the Falcons…he was the game-changing difference in my opinion… Let’s face it, as DDD pointed out, you hold Matt Ryan to under 200 yards passing in his house, and hold Atlanta’s vaunted run game to 138 yards, you could reasonably expect you had done enough defensively to win the game…
And the fumble late in the second quarter that they blamed on Vick? You know, the one that Ray Edwards picked up and took back 60 yards in the opposite direction?
Please click “Read More” to see the rest of my thoughts and analysis…
I told ’em Reid and Marty had sent in a trap play on that one but the guards ran it to the wrong side of center… or that maybe Ronnie Brown had run it to the wrong side… either way, it would be difficult to pin that turnover entirely on Vick’s shoulder pads…
Suddenly they were “short on time” and had to end the interview… I think they expected more of a “Negadelphia” performance from me, and they were definitely looking for some flame-throwing shots against Vick… And thus, abruptly, my radio career ended. I feel bad for my Mom, she always told me I had a face for radio…
Oh wait… they did get in one last question about who will start at QB on Sunday vs. the Giants…
I told ’em, I thought Vick was a borderline concussion situation… and according to Rick Burkholder, head trainer for the Eagles, that remains the case. They’re not really sure whether or not Vick has suffered a genuine concussion in the medical sense…but they have to undergo two days of tests and evaluation anyway.
I told ’em Vince Young probably still needed another week or two of rehab from his hamstring injury… so don’t count on him. Mike Kafka (whom they liked) could possibly be the starter, especially if he is the QB#1 at practice on Wednesday. I also reminded them, Andy Reid has Jeff Garcia on his speed dial…
Reid said he spoke with Vick at length after the game. “He remembered everything,” Reid said. “He recalled everything. I tried to quiz him and see where he was at. He was frustrated that he wasn’t able to finish. He had a vested interest in finishing.”
“The test is what it is. If he’s injured, he’s injured. I know that he wants to play.” If Vick is unable to play, Reid said he has not decided who the starting quarterback will be, either Vince Young or Mike Kafka. “We’ll see how all that goes,” Reid said. “I haven’t gotten to that point. It was a long night.”
Reid said he faulted himself for being “way too conservative” after Vick left the game and Kafka came in. “I sent a message to our team and not a positive one,” Reid said. “That is something I don’t do, in particular given how much trust I have him … I’m kicking myself in the trail for that right now.” Asked about Kafka, Reid said, “I would have never traded Kevin Kolb if I didn’t have trust in Mike Kafka. I didn’t show that last night. I would never have done the Vince Young deal if I didn’t have trust in Mike Kafka. I didn’t prove it to you last night until the last series.”
Reid said the biggest lesson was to be aggressive with a lead. “When you have a lead, you have to get after it and stay aggressive,” Reid said. “Again I didn’t set the tempo from that. We’re going to learn how to finish here, starting with me and the coaches and the rest of the guys.”
In other injury news:
· Brent Celek has a low back strain and is “tender today,” Reid said.
· Trent Cole has a strained tendon in his hand. “He should be fine,” Reid said.
· Juqua Parker has a high ankle sprain. “I can’t tell you how severe it is right now,” Reid said. “He’s got to get through today here and we’ll have a better idea.”
Some great “SMART FAN” reaction to the loss in Atlanta came from our very own armchairs here at Eagles Eye….
JB:
Crazy. We had the worst RZ D in the history of the Earf last year. So we switched up the D. In fact… we made our D opposite of what it was last year. Last year we 2Gapped the run… and had little pressure with the front 4… and blitzed often. This year we rarely blitz… get pressure with front 4… and stop the run on the way to the QB. LAst year we played Nickel all the time… and when we were in Nickel the Sam was out. This year we play Base all the time… and when we do go Nickel the WIll goes out.
And our RZ D is still bad. Go figure.
I do agree with meka. I think we’ll tighten those screws soon enough…
Kenny:
Triple D))) the thing about the red zone melt downs was last yr, we seemed incapable of stopping them. But this yr, you get the feeling that it’s a matter of time before we close that shop…
JB:
Boy… I was really hoping… and kinda expecting… Chaney to be a playmaker and D stopper. Disappointed thus far. He ran out of gas yesterdee… early in the 4th Q. Some of those 3rd down catches by Gonzo were pitch and catch. Basically no coverage…. especially on the last drive. He also missed 2 important tackles… including the one at the GL at the end. Not only should he have made the tackle… but he should have brought the womp on those easy plays.
I’m thinkin that maybe we should relieve Chaney some… like we do the DL. Or… perhaps maybe it was just one of those things. Needless to say…. I’ll be watching.
Leo:
I think I like Chaney better in the middle… and I know I like the idea of Clayton on the field… I still don’t have a firm feeling on Casey either way… Fokou is good enough for a spot our there… but if any one of them step up… we are in great shape… I don’t think they are bad… I think they are above average… but compromised intentionally by the scheme and that makes their effectiveness below average… I’d like to blitz them a little more too… take advantage of the speed, etc… let them shoot those B gaps some more…
Brizer:
Knuckleheads,…perk up!,….let me give you a brief primer on injuries,.particularly concussions. I will use the term “injury” generically with these general statements and suppositions: 1) Some injuries are slow onset and don’t manifests themselves till later,…when they could be a concern and maybe not. 2) Some injuries are immediate manifests,…but , in fact,, follow the unusual dogma,…being that their bark is worse than their bite. And sometimes they be just as bad as they look or worse. 3) And some injuries are just as they appear. So,..I ain’t going to spoonfeed you hamhocks,…the rest is in yur corner,….GK.
JB:
I think we lost cause our D ran out of gas. It was that simple to me. Turnovers didn’t help tho. And yet… we really still should have won that game.
Feeling pretty good about things overall today. Crazy thing is… I was applauding the new NU OC for running the same play over and over till Washingtonproved they could stop it. Then I cringed when Caoch Marty called that slip screen one too many times on that important 3rd down. Go figure. Hindsight 20/20
Don Pardo:
Trent Cole had a pro bowl performance. He was a bear…that game last night had everything! Too bad we couldn’t stop them just once. That fumble was a 14 point turnaround by Vick. MM was a little too creative there. But IMO MM called a good game. Got a little conservative in 4th but that was to protect Kafka. Maybe AR and MM should get a little more conservative to protect Vick…haha…
Brizer:
We’re much better than I thought. Things are coming to form. The bizarre happenstance of the Vick injury is what happens in football. Dunta should be suspended for a minimum of 2 games. When Young went done,..yur GK gave the BORED a timetable estimate for his return. Looks like I’ll hit it right on the nose. Vick should take off the Giants game,..regardless how he feels. The LBs played the gamut,…sublime to ridiculous. I was disappointed in Chains this week,…Fukou last week…
Brozer:
Do youses think that the LB’s and Paige’s coverage on Gonzo was all that bad ? I mean, on the one TD catch, Chain’s was ALL over him, and Gonzo makes a really good, athletic one handed tip to himselve, and barely got 2 toes down on the very back end of the endzone before falling out. It had to be a perfect throw/catch. And they did it. It woulda been nice if they coulda kept an eye on the QB a couple of times instead of staring at the receiver, but if they had done that, then they coulda lost track of the receiver all together. I was much happier with the LB’ers coverage last night, than the first game. My main gripe wiff dem last night, was the couple of over-pursuits in run coverage. For the bulk of the game, they played the run great. But at the beginning, and end of the game, they sucked. But the D-line had their share of blame (specially Babin) in some of those long runs….
Poet:
In a nut shell, we did a lot of good things. Our D-line dominated. It wasn’t just Cole. The DTs had a heck of a game, which allowed Cole to make so many plays behind the line … and which took some pressure off of the LBs early on. Our corners also lived up to their hype yesterday. Excellent game.
The linebacker play was terrible down the stretch. Casey not only failed to get off of blocks in this game, but he failed to mind his gaps at times late in the game. Chaney didn’t have a great game down the stretch either. I don’t blame them as much as most do for the Gonzalez receptions. He is the best to ever play the position, and they had decent position on him most of the time.
In the end we made too many major mistakes. Even with those mistakes we were in position to win, but lost our starting QB. Rough loss, but there was a lot of good to take away from it.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
