What a relief! Imagine a sluggish start turning into a rout! That’s what happened in St. Louis on Sunday as the Eagles prevailed, 31-13…
Jim Washburn’s pressure schemes derailed Sam Bradford…that’s DE Juqua Parker in Bradford’s grill above…The Rams lost their early advantage due to similar pressure attacks by the Eagles’ front four all game long…
The Rams were willing; the Eagles were better. And more often than not, better beats willing, and such was the case Sunday at the Edward Jones Dome in a 31-13 victory by Philadelphia. So wrote Jim Thomas of St. Louis Today.com…
Quarterback Michael Vick scrambled for Philadelphia. Wide receiver DeSean Jackson was tough to cover. Both of which fall into the category of — so what else is new? But what wasn’t expected was one Rams penalty after another, a half-dozen dropped passes by St. Louis receivers, and more injuries in one afternoon than the Rams suffered during the entire preseason.
So much for the best-laid plans. The idea was to pound away with Steven Jackson against an undersized Philadelphia front seven. And it worked — for all of two plays.
Steven Jackson raced off left tackle on the Rams’ first play of scrimmage for a 47-yard touchdown, bringing the sellout crowd at the Edward Jones Dome to life. Left guard Jacob Bell helped open up a huge hole with a seal block to the inside. It was Jackson’s longest TD run since 2008, and his longest run — period — since a 48-yarder against Arizona in 2009. But in trying to avoid a Philly tackler at the end of the play, he appeared to injure his right leg. Jackson carried one more time, on the Rams’ next offensive series — for 9 yards — but then was done for the day with a pulled right quad.
Before the afternoon was over, Jackson was joined on the sideline by several of his teammates. And they weren’t ham-and-eggers either. Wide receiver Danny Amendola suffered a dislocated left elbow early in the fourth quarter. Cornerback Ron Bartell left with a stinger with 9:15 to play. And quarterback Sam Bradford, who didn’t miss a snap as a rookie, followed those two with an injury to his throwing hand late in the quarter. And oh yeah, starting right tackle Jason Smith left with a left ankle injury midway through the third quarter.
With the score tied 7-up, the Rams were threatening on second-and-7 from the Eagles 29. But as Bradford was dropping back to pass, he stumbled, hit the ground and fumbled. It looked like Bradford lost his balance after stepping on the foot of center Jason Brown. As the ball squirted loose, it was picked up Eagles defensive end Juqua Parker, who rumbled 75 yards for a TD and a 14-10 Eagles lead.
Then Michael Vick took over with his legs.
After the game, Vick said: “It felt great to know that I can go out and play lights out, not have to worry about anything,” Vick said. “I feel better than I’ve ever felt before and I give a lot of credit with the situation with the CBA, giving us a lot time to get rest and to prepare ourselves.
“I feel like I can play another four quarters right now.”
Vick rushed for 98 yards and passed for two scores, LeSean McCoy scored twice and DeSean Jackson topped 100 yards receiving against a defense that couldn’t use injuries as an excuse.
“It was just a real disappointment the way we played,” Rams end Chris Long said. “We had a lot of self-inflicted mistakes. They made us make a lot of mistakes.”
The Eagles had 239 yards rushing, were 8 for 11 on third downs, and had 16 plays good for at least double digits. And yet, Vick felt it was far from perfect. For one thing, he connected on only 43 percent of his passes, his worst showing as a starter with the Eagles, going 14 for 32 for 187 yards.
“I’m thankful for the victory, don’t get me wrong,” Vick said. “I just wish it could have been a little cleaner.”
Mike, we’ll take it…
“We knew No. 7 was going to be tough to stop,” Rams head coach Spagnuolo said. “There’s a lot of fundamental things we didn’t do right.”
The Eagles defense applied constant pressure and piled up five sacks, two by Jason Babin. Darryl Tapp forced a fumble by Bradford that led to an easy 56-yard touchdown return by Juqua Parker in the first quarter, and also had a sack before leaving with a pectoral muscle injury. Trent Cole and Cullen Jenkins also had sacks…
Bradford was injured when he struck the helmet of an Eagles defender (I think it was Juqua Parker) on the follow through to a pass in the fourth quarter. Spagnuolo said Bradford’s injury could be nerve-related, although the quarterback said he’d play in next week’s Monday night game at New York against the Giants.
“I don’t see any way I’m not going to be on the field, to be honest with you,” Bradford said.
One of the more boisterous crowds in recent memory at the Edward Jones Dome, flush with optimism off an unbeaten preseason, was muted by the Eagles’ impressive display as well as injuries to the Rams. In the second half, the Rams also lost their top cornerback, Ron Bartell, with a stinger, their leading receiver from last year, Danny Amendola, with a dislocated left elbow, and offensive tackle Jason Smith with a high left ankle sprain.
LeSean McCoy had 122 yards on 15 carries and a 49-yard TD in the fourth quarter to go with a 7-yard scoring catch in the first quarter.
Bradford was 17 for 30 for 188 yards. Jackson’s backup, Cadillac Williams, had 91 yards on 19 carries.
Both teams’ first-round picks were inactive. Rams DE Robert Quinn was the 14th overall pick and Eagles OG Danny Watkins was 23rd overall. Watkins recently lost his starting job to free agent pickup Kyle DeVan. The Eagles also didn’t dress their second and third-round picks, S Jaiquawn Jarrett and CB Curtis Marsh.
A Vick 19-yard scramble on third-and-10 with less than a minute to go in the first half set up an Alex Henery field goal on the next to last play of the half. And on the Eagles’ first possession of the second half, A Vick scramble of 18 yards on second-and-16 jump started a Philadelphia touchdown drive that gave the Eagles a 24-10 lead in the third quarterback. On the TD, Vick bought time by running to his left and threw to DeSean Jackson for a 6-yard TD. Jackson found himself isolated in 1-on-1 coverage with a safety (Quintin Mikell) and made the most of the coverage mismatch.
Was it a perfect game thrown by the Eagles?— absolutely not. There were a lot of mistakes on both sides. But as Leo Pizzini pointed out during our live-blog game session, this is not a team designed for “perfect”— it is a team designed to wear you out.
Leo used the illustration of a team defense concept which is allowed to bend between the 20’s and induce turnover possibilities… which is exactly what we saw on Sunday in St. Louis.
We also saw the Rams physically run out of gas in the second half… we saw a team with much younger legs (the Eagles) outrun a team with veteran players in key positions… the Eagles simply played faster and were able to overcome their occasional mistakes on defensive reads and offensive assignments. Whether that kind of physical advantage will hold up against better teams than the Rams remains to be seen.
But all things considered, it was a great start— a very encouraging start— to the 2011 campaign. DC Juan Castillo should get a game ball for the way he stuck with his defensive game plan… he did not panic when the Birds were down. In the end, Castillo believed in the plan, and it wore the Rams down… in effect, beating Spags at his own game.
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