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Team: Eagles Record through 8 games: 4-3 Offensive grade:C- Defensive grade: B+ Special Teams grade: A Coaching grade:C Overall grade:C+ Most outstanding/surprising players(3):Carson Wentz, Jordan Hicks, Darren Sproles Most disappointing players(3):Entire WR corps, Zach Ertz, Jason Kelce General Franchise Grade: C Then they started out 3-0. Wentz is the real deal, and I don't think there's any more denying that. I'm not saying he's going to be Peyton Manning or Drew Brees, but he looks legit, and I hope we see him around for at least the next 10 years. Defense looks pretty stout, as I had anticipated through the preseason. Jordan Hicks seems to have picked up where he left off after having his season cut short due to injury last season. Malcolm Jenkins deserves a shoutout because he's been good as well. The biggest weaknesses are at the corners, and a lot of that is due to injuries and inexperience. "Wide 9" was a cringeworthy term in this town, after being utilized during Andy Reid's last season here, an ill-fated 4-12. However, it seems that the Eagles finally have the personnel on defense that can properly execute the technique. So far so good up front. Special teams has been amazing, with two kickoff returns for TDs this season, and Caleb Sturgis is looking like one of the better kickers in the league. The reason I'm not giving them an A+ is because the punt return unit gave up 30 yards on a 4th and 8 fake punt scramble against Dallas in a crucial part of the game. It might be harsh and please tell me if it is, but that just can't happen. Offense... where to begin. Outside of Wentz and Sproles, it has been lackluster in the skill positions especially. Up front, the lack of Lane Johnson was quite evident against the Redskins, with rookie Hal Vaitai being thrown around like Winston Justice out there. However, he has played very well since that game. The big weakness right now seems to be up the middle with Jason Kelce. He's undersized to begin with, but it's become more glaring in the last couple of seasons. This has turned into several holding calls and outright being pushed into the pocket. He's also had some sloppy snaps and a couple of false starts. I don't see him being an Eagle for much longer. We're still waiting on TE Zach Ertz to break out. He's been targeted a bit less this season than last, and that could all be due to progressions, but when he is, he's not making much of it. He seems to never be able to generate any RAC, and he's dropped a couple of big passes this season, one was a sure fire touchdown. The WR corps is easily one of the worst in the league. Jordan Matthews would be a WR2 anywhere else. DGB is still very much a project that might never come to fruition. Nelson Agholor is a first round bust. Josh Huff is probably going to prison. I don't know what else to really write here, other than I hope Wentz's best years aren't wasted trying to throw to inferior, incompetent players that can't play. The RB situation is in limbo at the moment. Darren Sproles has been amazing, but even though he got an RB1 workload against Dallas, I hope this isn't a trend going forward. He's too small and old to take that sort of abuse. Doug Pederson pretty much gave a vote of no-confidence to our existing RB1, Ryan Mathews, after a couple of ill-timed fumbles this season, with one that arguably cost them the Lions game. I'd like to see more of Kenyon Barner and Wendell Smallwood in the rotation, especially if they're not high on Mathews. (a note on Smallwood: yes, he did fumble on his only snap in the 4th against Dallas, but I still maintain that was a terrible time to have him see his first action of the entire game) Coaching-wise, I have no big complaints about any of the auxiliary coaching, but Big Doug is a big reason for the grade given. At first, he was aggressive, and it worked. Going for it on 4th down, etc. Since the bye week, he seems to have gone away from that, and the culmination of all of this was in the 4th quarter against Dallas. Around 5-6 minutes left, up 7, on the Dallas 30, 3rd and 8. It's a very makeable FG from a guy that hit (twice really) from 55 in the same game. You've been throwing screens all game that haven't been working. So what do you do? You throw a screen, and you lose yards. Now a fairly easy FG becomes more questionable. You threw backwards, and ended up backwards. So Instead of a 47 yard attempt it's somewhere in the low 50's. Okay, fine, go for the kick. But you don't. You punt it, and Dallas ties the game. Then when there's under a minute left, Dallas has the ball pinned deep, 3rd and 18, and you have all of your timeouts and Darren Sproles is your punt returner, you decide not to take any of them, and go to overtime. You never get the ball back, and the Cowboys win. That is the definition of playing not to lose. Doug, what happened? Did you realize that you're in a playoff race and get scared? I know you're a rookie head coach, and it's a difficult job, but when you make mistakes that are glaringly obvious to anybody with half a brain watching, you have to take some stock and learn from it. I hope you do. Overall, this is definitely a team that's indicative of its record. Not terrible, but not great either. It'd be nice if they can make the playoffs, but that's looking seriously in doubt especially now being 0-2 in the division and Dallas looking like the class of the NFC. If they lose to the Giants this weekend, and with the tough schedule coming up, it's over Johnny. But we'll see. shyduck fucked around with this message at 00:23 on Nov 3, 2016 |
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Nov 3, 2016 00:09
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| # ¿ May 14, 2024 09:14 |
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