Phil Simms and Andy Reid- Week 8

Francesa had both Phil Simms and Andy Reid on this morning on WFAN.

Phil Simms

1) “The Eagles’ OL has been borderline awful in protecting McNabb. 

And now McNabb is missing open receivers.”  Giants have the pass rush and will go down there and win the game.
2) Jets: “Can they withstand the loss of Kris Jenkins???  Only a couple of guys like him in the NFL. Hard for most to appreciate what he means for your defense/team. That is a tall order to get over.” Shonn Greene is replacing Leon Washington (also hurt) and they are simply two different backs.  But Simms is very high on Shonn Greene and was reminded of how everyone had him rated high, how the Jets were the ones who traded up to that first pick of the third round for him.
3) Dolphins: have had the toughest losses in the NFL this year.  The team is tough and physical on both sides of the ball. Sparano in the mold of Parcells.  But fumbles, mistakes, big passes given up by the defense, pass interference penalties have killed this team.  The Dolphins have been too aggressive on defense, they leave the secondary exposed, so the players have no choice but to grab and hold and get called for penalties.  Dolphins have the edge this weekend on matchups with Jets.
4) Saints attacked the Dolphins at the line of scrimmage, forced 1:1 QB-WR matchups for the Dolphins offense and the Dolphins WRs are the team’s weakness, failed.
5) Re Sanchez, the Jets are doing the right thing in running the ball to protect the rookie QB.  Last year the reason why (then rookies) Flacco and Ryan had success was because Baltimore and Atlanta ran the ball the most in the NFL.
6) Green Bay is no longer blowing assignments.. the big question in this meeting with MINN is: “Will the officials let the CBs (Woodson and Harris) of GB play and grab, two of the biggest grabbers in the league.” If the officials let them grab, the Packers will win.

Andy Reid

1) OL healthier than a few weeks ago
2) Defense is pretty steady
3) On the Will Witherspoon trade before the trade deadline– very fortunate to have him. “Real sharp kid.”
4) Trent Cole- Pro Bowl player, “on track to do that again.”
5) Eagles listened to the doctors and benched Westbrook for today’s game.  (That would have been criminally negligent in my opinion if they had let him play.)
6) Learning blitz pickups will be a challenge for rookie RB McCoy, he’s “getting better at it every week.”
7) On the wildcat, “you can’t load the box when you line the QB at WR because someone has to cover him.. good that your RB can throw the ball.  Kevin Kolb ran it at Houston; he runs it better than anyone on the team.”
8) On the Giants, typical platitudes: “Every one of our games is a knockdown dragout brawl.  Doing some different things without Steve (Spagnuolo) there… Eli is better than ever.  Great, sharp.  I grew to appreciate him (at the Pro Bowl last year)… Those two RBs are unbelievable.”
9) Vick: “He is a backup QB.  We have some plays/packages for him but it is Donovan’s team.  Vick is happy to be on the team and knows it is Donovan’s team.”  Will the number of Vick packages grow? Reid won’t say.